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Tuesday, 25 September 2007

Customer Care – It Made Me Scream

Recently, I’ve had a poor experience with a courier company. They failed dismally to deliver a package within the timescale required and the whole experience was hugely frustrating. We all know that things don’t run smoothly all the time but handling the customer after something has gone wrong is just as important, if not more so, than the incident itself. This company failed on both counts. Safe to say I won’t be using them again. I think it’s much better to hold up your hands, accept responsibility, take it on the chin and then do what you can to repair the damage.

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Monday, 17 September 2007

It's all About Confidence

Even while on holiday I constantly think about my business – how I can help my clients become more successful, getting new business, keeping in touch with prospects.
During this family holiday my three year daughter won an ‘X’ factor competition and it really got me thinking. She won it because she was the only one to get up and perform in front of the judges. As they say, you’ve got to be in it to win it. She had the confidence to give it a go – failure didn’t for one moment cross her mind.
I really do believe you have to think that way in business to be successful – be confident and believe in yourself. If you can’t do that for yourself then how can you expect anyone else to believe in you?

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Sunday, 2 September 2007

The gentle art of delegation

How to stop doing it all yourself!

How do I decide what to delegate?

If the task is something that nobody else can do – you can’t delegate it. So the first step is to look at how critical this task is to your business. If it has to be done for your business to function effectively, then decide if it’s something that you enjoy and that is a good use of your very valuable time. If the answer is ‘no’ to either of those questions, it’s time to delegate!

Who do I delegate to?

If you don’t want to always have to do it yourself you’ll need to find someone to delegate it to, internally or externally. If you have members of your team that could learn to do this particular task, then that’s a good place to start. If you don’t have anyone suitable internally, look at external options. For instance, you don’t have to do your own accounts, an accountant or a bookkeeper can do those for you; you don’t have to do your own administration a good VA can do that for you … and so on.

How do I make sure it gets done properly?

This is the point at which many people go wrong; they delegate the task without investing enough time in training the person who will be doing it. You need to spend a little time at this point examining the task and breaking it down into steps so you can explain it easily to someone who doesn’t have your level of knowledge yet. It may be that you could write a step by step list to accompany this. Don’t forget that it’s really important that the person doing it understands why they are doing it too.

How do I know that it will get done?

You set the reporting process when you delegate it. Remember that delegation is not watching every step that the person you’ve delegated to makes! Neither is it washing your hands of it and assuming it will just happen. You must put in place a time frame and feedback process so that you know what is happening – and when things go off track.

Once you’ve done this a few times it will get easier and you’ll wonder how you ever managed before!

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