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Navigating the Customer Experience

Join host Yanique Grant as she takes you on a journey with global entrepreneurs and subject matter experts that can help you to navigate your customer experience. Learn what customers really want and how businesses can understand the psychology of each customer or business that they engage with. We will be looking at technology, leadership, customer service charters and strategies, training and development, complaint management, service recovery and so much more!
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Now displaying: February, 2017
Feb 21, 2017

This episode with Yanique Grant, she will be speaking a lot about Customer Experience and one of the brand that she absolutely love and adore. Today is going to be another solo episode; she will start it off a little differently by sharing a quote by one of her favorite people, Maya Angelo. Maya says, “I have learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did but people will never forget how you made them feel.” It so important in every interaction that we have whether it’s face to face, whether it’s over the telephone, whether it’s an internet base connection, that we really aim to ensure that when people finish interacting with us they feel good because sometimes they won’t remember exactly what you said verbatim, they probably will not remember all the specifics of what you did but they are going to remember how the experience or that interaction made them feel, so we should always aim to ensure that our customers feel good after interacting with us.

 

Highlights

You are probably wondering, “What is this brand that Yanique is speaking about?” The brand is Apple, for those of you who knows her personally, who listens to her podcast, you will know that she is an avid Apple user, owner of a MacBook Pro, owner of an Ipad, owner of an Iphone, loves Apple absolutely and you’ll always hear her say, “Once you go Mac, you just don’t go back.” She is going to speak about some of the things that Apple has done to really create that magic formula, what are they doing in their stores and how can you take out some of the things that they are doing and inject into your own business. It is said that Apple makes US$5,000.00 per square foot on their customer experience and that is really amazing, when you compare that to other brands, Apple is performing like the brand Tiffany, the jewelry place, so there is no reason Apple should have all the fun or all the revenue because you can do exactly what they are doing, you just need ensure that you are doing the right things at the right time. Anyone can emulate Apple success in retailing by using the same principles of great customer service and customer experience. The first tip that we are going look at that Apple really emulate in their business is:

They focus on Getting the first moments right with every customer. The first moments a customer spends with a business can disproportionately affect how the customer remembers the entire encounter. Because of the way human memory works, if you get off to a bad start with a customer, it’s hard to recover, while if you do a spectacular job in those first few minutes, it’s a lot easier to coast to the finish line. Apple therefore strives to make sure your first few moments in the store go well. There are two discrete elements to Apple’s success here: Most visibly, they post friendly, enthusiastic, knowledgeable greeters near the front doors, whom she as experienced herself whether it’s in Florida or Minnesota or New York or Chicago, every time she goes to an Apple Store, regardless of the location, she is greeted by someone who is friendly, they are enthusiastic and they are knowledgeable and they are right there at the first point of contact. The only task for the shepherd is to tell you where you need to go and help you avoid the potential disorientation and stress that could otherwise be induced by the bustling store environment because their store is always packed. To take this a step further (or backward), they encourage you, well before you get to the store, to assist in creating a successful entrance experience by pre-scheduling your visit via the Apple Store App and that is just amazing. If Apple succeeds in getting you to do this, it means that when you get to the Apple Store the greeter can even more easier to interact with to get you to where you want to go. That’s step number one that they are definitely doing differently from their competitors.

Apple also Respects their customers’ time. The Apple Store app and Apple online scheduling options not only help reduce the initial stress of arriving at the Apple Store, they ensure that a customer’s visit makes efficient, productive use of the customer’s time. If a customer wants help with diagnosing a flicker in their MacBook Pro screen and only has 45 minutes to spend on the errand, there’s a good chance they can make it in and out of the store within that time frame. Does your business respect your customers’ time? Customers today are busy people, often working unusual schedules, and they appreciate those businesses that treat their time with consideration.

The next big thing that Apple is doing is they are Hiring employees who have the right personality traits for customer service. In almost any electronics retail store, the people selected for employment are enthusiastic about technology, and the fanboys and fangirls who work at the Apple Store are no different. But Apple doesn’t think this is enough. They strive to hire prospective employees who are also good, empathetic listeners. The reality is that in this age of consumer skepticism, a business is not going to succeed by giving a hard sell. Providing great customer service, in fact, is as close to selling as the Apple Stores get. We are not sure how many of you are listening to this episode are familiar with the book, How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, that book is a book that Yanique believes that every business owner, every sales person, every customer service person, every person in life should read that book at least once or twice per year because the book focuses on so much on developing your personality, understanding people, ensuring that you have the right personality traits, ensuring that are being quality human being by listening effectively when you’re conversations with people. When they’re thinking about hiring, you need to think to yourself, “Are you systematically hiring the employees who are most likely to succeed with your customers?” It’s very important for you to really focus on that thought, that’s a question you need to ask yourself each time you hire a new employee for your business.

The next thing that Apple does is they Train and train again. It’s not enough to hire employees with potential. Success with customers requires top-notch customer service training. This should start at orientation and continue at intervals throughout the employee’s career with the company. To take just one Apple example, employees are trained, right at orientation, that a successful customer engagement depends on deploying Apple’s systematic process (APPLE stands for: Approach-Probe-Present-Listen-End), and they are trained in how to tailor this formula to the individual customer. An employee can’t be expected to wing it here; training and re-training are what’s called for. Does your business invest in customer service training annually, semi annually, quarterly, monthly? Are you looking for opportunities to constantly injecting these people with the DNA that they need to succeed in every customer service experience that they have over the phone, through your social media, face to face? Because if that’s not what you’re doing then you’re not going to succeed. It’s essential, from employee onboarding through periodic reinforcement to larger-scale training workshops. As a customer service speaker, trainer, and consultant herself, this is where she risk sounding self-serving, but she would stand behind the importance of methodical, repeated customer service training even if she had no dog in the fight here.

Another big thing that Apple does that sets them apart from their competition is they Streamline. One of the great innovations of the Apple Store is its innovative and unwavering devotion to streamlining: removing everything that could get in the way of a customer’s engagement with Apple’s products and its helpful employees. In an Apple store, there’s a notable absence of cash registers, paper receipts, or anything else to clutter up the experience. This isn’t just an aesthetic choice; it provides clarity of mind for customers and employees about the purpose of the Apple Store customer experience. So, once a purchase decision has been made, or a repair is determined to be required, there’s nothing in the way of making the purchase or repair happen: no forms in duplicate, no waiting in line for a single cash register. These people walk around with devices in their hand that kind of looks like an Ipad and they are able to cash you out exactly where you’re standing, exactly where you’re interacting with them. It is so hassle free, the question you need to ask yourself about your own business is are you streamlining your customer experience? Doing so is almost certain to pay off in improved customer satisfaction–and, if it makes purchases easier, in immediate financial results as well.

Even though the 5 concepts that we have given you here that Apple is using, let’s recap. One is Get the first moments right with every customer, second is to Respect your customers’ time, third is to Hire employees who have the right personality traits for customer service, forth is to Train and train again and fifth is to Streamline. If you follow these steps, even though they are very straightforward, implementing them in a way that works for your business is where your understanding of what makes your business unique must come into play. She is not trying to turn you into a cookie cutter replica of an Apple Store, or of any other successful business. The goal is to keep “you” you, but in a way that gets the non-you out of the way of delighting your customers. Apple actually invented almost none of these concepts; they borrowed them most visibly in fact from the hospitality methods of great 5 star hotels. But by putting them into play in a very Apple way, they now seem to be an organic part of the Apple brand. She encourages you to go forth in your businesses this week, this month, look at your team members, look at your recruitment processes, look at how you’re streamlining, are you training and training, are you being pound foolish and dollar wise? But you really need to ensure that you are making sure that your spend is quality because if you invest in the development of your organization through your people and through your processes and through how you streamline and how the experience goes for your customers, what does that journey look like for them, is it one that is seamless, is it one that is hassle free, is it one that delight them then guarantee that you’re going to see lots of dollar signs at the end of each experience that your customers have with you and the good thing is, they’ll go out and become evangelist of your business, so you can actually use some of that money that your using for marketing advertising and reinvest into making that delight a repeat experience for your customers.

 

Links

Feb 14, 2017

Kenneth Bator is the founder of Bator Training and Consulting Inc; he has more than 15 years of experience in helping organizations create environments where employees actually want to come to work and customers want to keep coming back. As a facilitator for training and strategic planning sessions and an expert in brand concept, culture building and management, Kenneth has helped 100’s of organizations since 2001. In additional to his career working with managers and entrepreneurs, he has also served as an executive of 3 different institutions throughout the United States of America and has assisted many small to medium size businesses to reach new levels of effectiveness. Kenneth is the author of The Formula for Business Success = B+C+S, The Pocket Guide To Strategic Planning: The 90-Day Quick Fix For The Business Owner or Manager and The Strategic Planning Workbook and Guide For Financial Institutions, his articles has appeared in many trade publications including the Credit Union Journal, Lifestyle Entrepreneur, CU Business Magazine and ABA Bank Marketing. Born and raised in Chicago, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance and an MBA in Entrepreneurship from DePaul University as well as a Certificate in Integrated Marketing from The University of Chicago.

 

Question

  • Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey
  • As a management expert, how do you feel about customer service or customer experience on a global level?
  • Your book The Formula for Business Success = B+C+S, B is the brand, C is the culture and S is the strategy. Why do you believe that all of these three things need to be cohesively aligned in order for a business to reap success?
  • In your experience as it relates to the brand, the culture and the strategy, what role do you think leadership plays?
  • What would be 3 characteristics you believe a leader should have in order to be successful in these 3 areas of brand, culture and strategy?
  • What are some important considerations that you would recommend to business owner they take into account moving into the online space in order to be successful?
  • What advice would you give an employee or business owner in a business about sustaining a service culture?
  • How do you stay motivated every day?
  • What is the one online resource, website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business?
  • What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you?
  • If you were sitting across the table from another business owner and they said to you that they feel they have great products and services but they lack the constantly motivated human capital, what’s the one piece of advice would you give them to have a successful business, specifically as it relates to constantly motivated human capital?
  • What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or people?
  • Where can our listeners find your information online?
  • What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity?

 

Highlights

  • Kenneth Bator shared that his journey started with basically getting let go of an executive job, he was the Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for a 4 Billion Dollar Financial Institution in the Chicago area and with a change in executive management came a change in a lot of positions and his was one of the first ones but he decided that instead of going back into corporate life to do what he really loved and enjoyed which is teaching and public speaking and writing and working one on one with a lot of different entrepreneurs and business owners and he loved every minute of it. In a sense, the founding principle that he lives by as well as mentor many college students on is really find out what you love, do what you love and find a way to make a living at that, otherwise, it’s going to be a real uphill climb. He didn’t realize how unhappy he was in the executive job until somebody did him a favor and let him go.
  • Kenneth stated that to him Customer Service and Customer Experience are two different things. Customer service is part of the customer experience, you could have customer service and it can be poor service, which means that you’re providing no experience or a very poor experience. A lot of what he teaches centers on that experience itself and he believes it first starts with creating an experience for your employees, it is very difficult to have a positive interaction with your customers if you don’t have employees that really and truly want to be there.

Yanique agreed that customer experience is different because the experience forms everything that they go through; every channel that they are engaging with your business and also, it is before they come in to work with you, so a lot of customers are very informed before they come to your business, with the onset of the internet, they can do their own research, they can look for information on their own, they are 60%-75% informed about what your business offers before they even have an interaction with you or your employees.

 

Kenneth stated that the example that he usually use, he uses one from his banking day is that customer service is we are going to handle the customer transaction properly and efficiently maybe even wish him/her a nice day and shuffle him/her out of our bank. A customer experience is when we have a line at the teller line, we are going to have somebody come by and offer them water and coffee, we’re going to ask them if there is something we might be able to do for them in an office, we might ask them,”What was your transaction today and what were you trying to accomplish? Maybe there’s another way that we can help you.” That’s an experience, that’s a how do we create a positive environment for our customer rather than just putting them in a line and giving them service and taking care of a transaction.

  • Kenneth shared that around the time he was let go in 2001, he started to really delve into a number of different books and even before he was let go and was an executive, he tried to be a sponge and really understand all the nuances of business to take things to the next level, so he’d read a book on reengineering and he’d go to a seminar on empowerment and he would listen to a tape on Six Sigma and he would always think, “How do we put all of this together? How do you apply this? But not just tactically but apply it where it’s in alignment with everything.” Slowly but surely he came up with this brand culture strategy concept in that, “We need to know what is the image we want to create out in the public, we need to know what experience we need to create both through and for the employees and we need to know how to drive more of the right business to our business, brand, culture and strategy.” What he found that was developing in his mind is that he would do work in one area for a client for instance, one client would call him and ask him to do a strategic plan for them and they would do a very in depth written plan but nothing would get executed because their culture, the people weren’t passionate and wouldn’t support it, so the culture was an issue there or somebody would hire him to help them with marketing and build a brand message and they would do an awesome job of that and they would drive more of the right people to their business with that brand and that strategy but maybe the culture wouldn’t provide the main point that the customer experience that was proper, therefore everything falls apart. The same thing goes when you have a great culture where you have a team that’s really engaged and want to work and you have a strategy that makes sense in terms of having the right profit margins and the right product but if you’re not getting your brand message out there properly, you’re like the best kept secret, you’re not getting the people there to work with your business, so if the B or the C or the S isn’t quite right, then your formula is not going to yield the success that your business should have.
  • Kenneth shared that leadership in management are different things, he’s a big fan of Dr. Stephen Covey’s work and he talked a lot about that whether it was in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change or any of his other books. Management is about moving around things and categorizing items but leadership is truly working with people which is a much tougher job, so from a brand, culture and strategy stand point, it really does start with the leader, somebody that understands that we can’t have a positive customer experience without having a positive employee experience and we can’t gain profit from a positive customer experience unless we have the right brand messaging to drive more of those people to our experience. And also so from a strategy stand point, you need a leader who understands that you need to not only just have goals but to have all the tactics and objectives aligned where people understand and can continue to move the organization forward, so leadership is key, without the right leadership and he has seen it too many times even with a great team and a great passionate staff it’s very difficult to have a successful business.
  • Kenneth shared that the 3 characteristics a leader should have and the first is one is self-awareness and he can speak for himself as he has a very big ego and a type A personality but being able to step back and being able to say, “I screwed that one up.” “I actually do need to back to my staff and have a little egg on my face and say that one is on me guys, I messed up and maybe I took it out on you as my employee or my staff or my right hand person. Number 1, I apologize, number 2, we’re going, number 3, if you see me do that again then call me on it.” Second is engagement which you can also call involvement, he sees a lot of leaders that maybe have good intentions but they want to do everything themselves, take advantage of the resources that you have you’d be surprised at the things your staff can do even if your running a little ma and pa grocery store, talk to the part-time cashier ask him/her, “What do you think we could do to drive more business to our store?” and you’d be surprised, you’d get some great ideas. The last one is being able to take an airplane view, and he’s guilty of this and this is way he has a consultant for his business because he’s close to it even though he can consult with other people’s businesses but take an airplane view and be able to see how everything is working from above. We get so busy in the tactical, we get so busy in the day to day, “Oh, I have to do the books today, I’ve got to do the inventory today, I’ve got to do employees reviews today.” and you’re bouncing around from one task to the other, the ability to take at least 15 minutes a day from an airplane view and look down is not only critical but also provides some really valuable prospective.
  • Kenneth stated that he has a client that wants to take their business online, they are not getting rid of their brick and mortar but they want to engage with their customers online and one of the struggles that they have is that they do have a great culture and they do such a great job of engaging with their customers when they walk through the door, how do we transfer that into online? What they are working on is what does a personal engagement look like online for their customer? Sometimes it’s a matter of asking, “What do you want Mr. Customer?” especially if you have a long time client that you’ve been working with for a long time. What does online business with us look like? What is comfortable to you? For instance, this client is actually looking at ways through their app to actually say, “Hello, Yanique” of “Good morning, Yanique” and to make that online a little more personable. So that’s the big question to ask is, “How can I create a customer experience online that is going to be aligned with how I works with customers today?” It’s not the end all, be all silver bullet but if you start by asking those questions, then you’re automatically on the right track.
  • Kenneth stated that for advice on sustaining a service culture and if you’re going to do one thing, implement service standards and don’t just implement service standards, implement service standards from the ground up and what he suggests is get everybody on your front lines, get everybody that works with customers most often and he sees it when a company does merge with another organization and now all of a sudden they have 5 or 6 people that are brand new coming from a completely different environment and they say, “Okay, what do we do with these folks?” if you already have service standards, then he suggests getting everybody in a room and say, “Alright, we are a new team, we are a new family now, these are the service standards that we have, let’s discuss if we need to make an changes, additions or take some these things off. For instance, if we have a service standard that we are going to answer the phone within 3 rings, if we have an operational reason why we can’t adhere to that, then we better take it off or change it or make it 5 rings because it’s written down, it’s a promise.” And if you don’t have service standards then its even better opportunity is to get everybody involved and simply do an exercise and say, “What does service mean to you? What does service look like here? What should service look like?” Kenneth has done those types of exercises dozens and dozens of times and every time he does that, they always get some amazing feedback. Sometimes they get some goofy stuff which is like, “Get more sleep” but sometimes they get some really interesting things which is, “We should be able to solve most problems within 72 hours and we usually do, why don’t we make that a standard and put it in writing that we will resolve all problems within 72 hours and if we can’t, we will call the customer or client within 72 hours to give them an update, let them know what we’re doing and what’s in line for them.” but when you do that and you create the service standards from the ground up and you get people involved then there is instant buy in, now there are service standards, they are your service standards, they are not just one more thing that’s being pushed down from management saying, “Here are your service standards that you need to adhere to everyday.” They are all involved in this and if you’re bring new people on, that’s a great opportunity to either create them or take a new look at the service standards so that you can create that buy in and get every body involve right from the start.

Yanique agreed that they are good points that you definitely need buy in, it needs to have a level of inclusivity that people feel like they are apart of the process because then they are more willing to adhere and to actually own the issue, they don’t feel like it’s information being handed down to them that they have to comply with and it makes the environment that much easier for you to work with because the team members feel like it’s their business and it really is. You spend 90% of time at work.

Kenneth stated that he has seen in some circumstances where if you’ve done this properly in terms of creating the service standards, that there’s even a self-management among the team where one front line worker will tell the other front line worker, “Hey, that’s not how we do things here.” It actually begins to take some of the onus off the leader to continually be that person that cracks the whip, it actually makes things in the best of circumstances run smoother without your involvement as a leader. When you can leave for days and the place runs just as well or better than when you’re there, then you know you’ve done something right.

  • Kenneth shared that he’s no different from other people; some days motivation comes easy and other days it doesn’t. Motivation for him is that he loves what he does and he’s really passionate about this brand, culture and strategy alignment concept. On the days when he’s not motivated, sometimes you just have to acknowledge it. He thinks that as entrepreneurs, executives, business owners, a lot of times we just want to push through things and that’s not necessarily bad but sometimes we you just have to acknowledge it like, “Hey, I’m a little off today, I’m not as motivated, I’m not as focused, I’m not necessarily doing backflips over what I need to do today.” And just acknowledging that leads you to a question in your mind of, “What do I need? Maybe I need to go out for a run or maybe I need to have one more cup of coffee or maybe I just need to take a walk around the block.” Sometimes what he’ll do if the task is not coming to him, let switch to another task, maybe instead of working on this client’s strategic plan, let’s put that off until this afternoon and let’s work on a video this morning, let’s work on another project because sometimes that gets your mind going to where you’re little bit more motivated in the day.
  • Kenneth shared that the tool he can’t live without in his business is LinkedIn, if they took away Facebook and Instagram and every other app that he has and only left him with one, he would say LinkedIn is his best resource. It’s his best resource for information, he reads a lot of articles from other thought leaders on LinkedIn. He always find really good education on there and he connects with a number of people, there are some clients that he LinkedIn message, they don’t even email because they are on that app. So LinkedIn is number 1.
  • Kenneth stated that the one thing he would say is, “What’s the feedback from your people?” if you truly feel they are not motivated then you have to ask. Sometimes we think it’s rocket science but it isn’t, sometimes it’s just a matter of getting people in the room and asking them really leading questions with the sincerity to listen, “What do you think is going on here? How do you think that we could take our business to the next level?” sometimes that question is a great one because you have some people that have some burning ideas in them but they’re afraid to say it and if you’re not getting the answers by simply asking them face to face then you need to try another way, maybe it’s an anonymous survey or you bring in an expert to do focus groups or something like that because you need to get that feedback, you need to the “Why”. If you’re not seeing the motivated human capital out there amongst your team then you have to get to the “Why”, is it because of the salaries, is it because of the working conditions, is it because of possibly one bad apple on the team that may be a supervisor that is not doing the job properly. You can’t solve the problem until you get the “Why’s” so you have to ask the questions.
  • Kenneth shared that the thing that he’s really excited about right now is in the process of putting together a couple of online classes based on the brand, culture, strategy concept that he put together. He have been wanting to do that for a long time because there are people that enjoy the book and there are people who enjoy seeing and hearing him speak but there are some folks that want to learn but don’t necessarily want to hire him has a consultant and he understands that so he’s excited about giving them an option of an online class where they can take that at their leisure and work the brand, culture strategy concept through their unique business. Kenneth stated that his hope is to have it out summer 2017, that might be a little aggressive but now that he have put it out there, then it would more likely to come out this summer.
  • Kenneth shared that listeners can find him at -

www.btcinc.net

Kenneth Bator LinkedIn

Kenneth Bator Twitter

Kenneth Bator Facebook

  • Kenneth shared that he has a quote that he sometimes revert to and it’s one that many people have heard before, it’s Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity which is, “Doing the same thing and expecting a different result.” That kind of pops into his head, it’s like a cartoon clown jumping out of a clown car sometimes where actually a voice comes in and saying, “Okay, are we just simply doing the same thing and expecting a different result?” or “Do we need to change at least a little what we’re doing today in order to actually move forward?”

 

Links

All In Startup: Launching a New Idea When Everything Is on the Line by Diana Kander

Feb 7, 2017

Angie Fisher founded and created Coaching Success Systems in 2011 as a way to provide busy business owners with the full range of resources they need to accomplish their goals. What began as a part-time position became a full-time thriving business by 2012 providing copywriting, graphic design, administrative and marketing assistance and more to several successful coaching entrepreneurs. Over the last 3 years, Angie has continued to grow a thriving business by creating a team of 15 talented support members. Coaching Success Systems provides valuable services to clients all over the world. As a mother of 3 children and an entrepreneur, Angie understands the importance of providing solutions that will help you reduce stress, grow your personal wealth, decrease overwhelm, stabilize your business during hectic times and find more free time to do what you enjoy. Angie’s passion for helping entrepreneurs succeed has led her to author several free reports you can find on her website at www.coachingsuccesssystems.com, each report can provide you with tips that you can implement today to save time, grow your business and spend more time with those that you care about and are close to.

 

Question

  • Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey
  • Can you tell us a little about what is it that you do and how is it that you make life simpler for other entrepreneurs?
  • As a small business owner, what are your views on customer experience?
  • What if a leader is not big on automation, what are some of the tips you help to get those entrepreneurs into a mindset that will allow them to transform their business?
  • How do you stay motivated every day?
  • What are some important considerations that you would recommend to business owner they take into account moving into the online space in order to be successful?
  • For running a business at home, how do you balance that and what are some of the things you would recommend to an entrepreneur to take into consideration to be successful?
  • What is the one online resource, website, tool or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business?
  • What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you?
  • What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or people?
  • Where can our listeners find your information online?
  • What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity?

 

Highlights

  • Angie Fisher stated that as an entrepreneur, that definitely had challenges but that’s okay because she feels like that’s why she is where she is today because of the challenges and the wins and all the triumphs. Definitely challenges throughout the 6 years she has been in business. She started the business as a part-time, not so much as a hobby but doing a little bit of extra income after she had her son and it quickly turned into a thriving business and she had to make some tough decisions as not only as an entrepreneur but a parent and still stay grounded to her “WHY”and she continues to develop that and continue to grow her business but to also keep her family in mind at the same time.
  • Angie stated that they help entrepreneurs and even companies and business owners use delegation and use the power of delegation to get more done in their business, they also help them conquer technology and guide them so that they don’t have to know how to do everything in their business, they can stay in their zone of genius and where they are an expert at and do what they love and they take care of all of the rest. Angie and her team create foundational services so that entrepreneurs and companies can stay in that zone of genius and do what they want and they can take care of everything else to keep their business thriving.
  • Angie stated that it is one of the main areas of a business, in any business customer service and customer experience is a part of the bread and butter, it’s what makes your business successful not only short term but long term, it can make or break a business and good word spreads well but bad experiences spread like wild fire, so it’s our obligation as business owners and entrepreneurs to make sure that there are measures in place initially and those measures are being monitored and checked and reviewed by your team or by someone other than yourself often to ensure that the customer experience is there and it’s what you want it to be, it’s not unnecessarily a cookie cutter, it’s you want the feel of and what you want your customers to experience when they are working with you or buying from you.

Yanique shared that as a business owner herself who lives in Jamaica, she finds that customer experience is driven or inspired by the person that’s leading the company, so leadership is very important.

Angie stated that leadership creates the whole moral of the company and that moral trickles down to the customer experience and the results of the business, so leaders need to really follow the 3 C’s, have communication, be consistent and have compassion and they also need to teach their staff or their team the same morals. It’s really important to not forget what it’s like to be on the other side of the desk, or the computer or the monitor or the cash register, wherever your customer is sitting, to not forget what that experience is like, so leaders need to understand and help their staff to know and remember that and that can’t go away it doesn’t matter what size your business is, there has to be someone in charge of remembering what that’s like and ensuring that that’s still powerful. Angie stated that the employees could have those values themselves, they could be a great communicator, they could be a consistent person, they could have compassion but the real power comes from the leader teaching the staff on how to implement that in the business, how to reflect that in the business, the tone, the voice, the service, the product, all of that plays into it and the leader really needs to guide those employees to help them understand that and they will look up to that leader because of how they are acting, they are a role model.

  • Angie shared that she always suggests that when they are in that situation, when an entrepreneur or business owner feels that way, you start small. You always have to start somewhere and starting small and guiding them and letting them know and building trust with them that, “We can handle this and here’s a plan, short term and long term on how we can help and here’s the first step we’re going to take.” They take their hand and walk along the journey with them and start on a project they feel like they could delegate out and it’s not going to have a huge impact on their business or it’s not going to be customer facing. It is something they can be done behind the scenes and in a worst case scenario, if it’s completely messed up or if it doesn’t happen which I haven’t happen but an entrepreneur says, “What’s the worst thing that could happen today?” then their customers, their business is not directly affected by a small task that they are going to start doing for them and then once that task is done, they build more rapport and they continue to do more and more for them and the whole time they are still practicing communication and consistency and compassion. They do that within her team and make sure that their clients feel like they are taken care of and they can trust them to help them get started which sometimes can be difficult but it’s very promising because entrepreneurs are very open to delegation and very accepting once they have experienced it and get a taste in their mouth.
  • Angie shared that there are a few things that keeps her motivated and we all need those motivators to keep some fire within us and she really loves what she does, she’s a leader and a teacher and an organizer at heart so this industry fits her well which gives her motivation. She knows at the end of the day that other entrepreneurs and companies are relying on her to help them with their challenges, challenges she faced on her own and help them work towards their life of success and goals so that’s what keeps her going because she knows she has sat in their chair before, she knows what it’s like to be scared, she knows what it’s like to be tired and to stay up late at night and to get up early in the morning and to sometimes have to tell your family no you can’t do something because you have to work, she knows what that feels like and she wants to take that away from them and tell them have more freedom in their business. That’s the big motivator for her and the last one would be her family and her kids because she wants to teach her kids by action not only by words and she feels like being an entrepreneur and being a role model to them is powerful and it shows them that they too can be entrepreneurs if they wish too later.
  • Angie shared that what they should take into consideration is to remember that you are going to take care of the customers that you have now and be okay if they do not want to transition online as well. You have a different market online, you can have a different market online and you can stay and take care of your customers and have them experience the same service they have in your store, so remember that, not everybody is going to transition and agree with that and that’s okay. Also think of it a little bit differently when you move to online, it is a different space and how can you as a brick and mortar business relay the voice, the tone, the feel that business has, how can you relay that online, how can you have your new customers online experience the same thing they experience when they walk into your store, when they pay for their products, when they are greeted throughout the store, make sure that it is consistent and don’t lose that value.

Angie stated that she truly believes in consistency, if you aren’t consistent then there is lack of trust and lack of trust will get you no where. You will not have customers and you will have trouble growing your business when you don’t have the trust of your clients and so consistency goes a long way.

Yanique Grant shared that consistency is one of the founding characteristics of a business that offers quality customer experiences, if you look at the Zappos of the world and the Amazons of the world, they are consistent in their service delivery and if they are not consistent, their service recovery strategy is extremely successful in winning that customer back over at the first point of contact because they know how important it is to retain their existing customers.

 

Angie stated that a lot of entrepreneurs want to fish the sea, they want to get new leads and new clients but we always have to remember to take care of the clients we currently have and we already have them, they have already raised their hand and said, “I have bought from you or I want more from you” so we should pay attention them and it may be easier and cheaper to sell more to them than to go out and try to get a whole lot more leads of new clients. There is a balance there but be sure that you are paying attention to those that already love you.

 

  • As an entrepreneur running a business from home as she struggled with it for a while, the balance of it was hard, she’s not saying that it’s perfect at this point, life changes, days are different, she is adapting and changing this process as her life, her family and her business grows. The tips that she would give is that you have to take time for yourself to build your business, it is going to take you putting sometime on the calendar or on the refrigerator, taking a highlighter and highlighting some time out and being clear that, “This is my time” and having an office with a door that shuts and not to be inconsiderate or rude to your family but that’s a sign that, “This is my time, this is my business time and I need this time to grow my business because this is important to me” and it won’t grow if you aren’t able to spend time on it. So shutting the door would be one of her big tips, it seems so simple and it kind of seems silly but it’s so important because you have kids coming, “Mom, where is this, mom, what are we having for dinner, what are having for lunch?” and you don’t have that barrier, so when you have that barrier, it really shows them a more serious measure and respect and boundaries. Also planning ahead, you want to be sure you have your to do list and this to do list should not have10 or 15 items on it, it needs to have 3-5 things that are your top priority, ”These are the things I need to get done in this period of time” and it’s not something that you plan right before you start work, when you are ready and kid free or you have your time to work, it’s literally sitting down at your computer and you start working, it’s no planning, it’s doing, implementing at that time. Plan ahead, if it’s the night before, if it’s the Sunday before the week, whatever that looks like, plan ahead and have a system in place and that kind of move her in the other systems and processes are truly going to save you a ton of time and if you’re not wired like that, what she would suggest is as your setting your business up, think about how if someone else was to do this job what would they need, so this might look like a checklist of what you’re doing and what needs to be done in your business and as you move forward and do more and more in your business, the checklists are going to grow and you just create them as you go and set them aside and have a process for yourself and before you know it, you’re going to have an operations manual and when it’s time to delegate, you’re going to be able to easily delegate because you have followed these checklists and someone else can do the same thing.

Yanique stated that this is applicable even if it’s you alone in the business in the first 6 months; you can put that structure in place so that when the opportunity comes for expansion and scaling, delegation is a much smoother process.

Angie agreed and shared that delegating early is the key but she also understands that that’s not possible sometimes, so being ready because when you bring a team into chaos which is most of the time a business that has experienced growth, it is chaos behind the scene because you are working hard to keep everything floating and nothing dropping and so you bring in a team or a virtual assistant or a coach into it to help you, they are coming into a little chaos and it makes it stressful for the business owner, it can make it stressful for the team and it makes it more difficult to move forward, it takes more investment of time. Setting up those things early and especially when you’re growing, you have a little bit of extra time, even if you have a family at home, you still have the time and it’s worth it to take the extra 15-30 minutes while you’re doing the task to make the checklist along the way.

  • Angie shared that a Project Management System. She that it’s the life of her business, it is what helps it keep going, she and her time and her clients work out of it. They have a Project Management System where they communicate, that’s where tasks are set, that’s where passwords are saved because it’s a secure site, that’s where everything happens, it’s kind of the heart and brain of your body, that’s what a Project Management System is to her business. The project management system Angie and her team uses is com.
  • Angie stated that she has 2 books that have impacted her. The Slight Edge: Secret to a Successful Life by Jeff Olson, it’s a book about taking small steps and actions each day to work towards your big goal and at the end of the day we have 2 choices, we can take the positive side and we can take the negative side and regardless of what side you choose, those are going to compound and those are going get you to a bigger goal negative or positive so it’s really important to remember that the small steps that you take each day are going get you somewhere and just to pay attention to where that somewhere is, what are you working towards. Her second book is Thank & Grow Rich: A 30-Day Experiment in Shameless Gratitude and Unabashed Joy by Pam Grout, it is a book about living a life full of gratitude and stepping back to be thankful for what you have now, you can still wish for more and want for more because we are human and we want that but it’s taking a look at being thankful for what you already have in front of you and what you’ve been given or what you have received that got you to where you are today, those are her 2 favorite books that have helped her throughout her life and business.
  • Angie shared that the one thing that is working on right now is that she is building out a new service in her business and it is narrowing on My Zone of Genius. My Zone of Genius is being a leader and delegating and taking care of a lot of balls in the air and keeping everything in motion and setting up a system in process for that. She is beginning to offer a service to businesses, companies and online entrepreneurs to where she is setting up the systems and processes personally, she is guiding them and putting their business under a microscope to see where there are gaps and where things could be fixed, where they could gain more clients or have better client retention, have a better client experience, she is really excited to offer that in the coming weeks, the product will be launched on February 14, 2017 and being one to one with other companies and businesses.
  • Angie shared that listeners can find her at -

www.coachingsuccesssystems.com

Angie Fisher Facebook

Angie Fisher Twitter

Angie Fisher YouTube

Angie Fisher Pinterest

Angie Fisher LinkedIn

Project Management Teamwork App

 

  • Angie shared one of her own quote, which is, Your knowledge and experience is enough.” She stated that a lot time people don’t feel like they are enough or that they know enough or that they have enough but you are enough and she also wants entrepreneurs to remember that because sometimes it can be a very lonely world.

Links

 

 

Listeners of This Episode #40 – Receive a Free Gift from Our Guest Angie Fisher

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