Consider your business the same way you would a gift you are giving someone you care about. What details are included for your customers, how much effort goes into preparation, how is it presented?

It’s rare to hear a business not mentioning customer service as a part of their processes. Yet, extensive research I conducted across Australia and New Zealand, identified just 17% have defined their customer experience. Only 70% of those 17% offer staff training in that customer experience. The rest are leaving the end result to individual interpretation and chance.

We can’t miss the media focus showcasing customer frustrations as they spend their hard earned money, the range of choice available and how essential it is to provide an exceptional level of service. 

How often do you walk away from any business feeling WOW that was amazing? On the other hand, how many times do you leave experiencing annoyance or frustration? Also, there is feeling simply satisfied, not consciously thinking of that business again. In fact we often experience these extremes across one day.

Word of mouth is the most inexpensive and powerful form of marketing. Use it to your advantage. People don’t talk about satisfaction, just poor or exceptional, with the ability these days to share these experiences - when emotions are high - through instant communication such as twitter, facebook, smart phones and ipads.

Although competition is strong research shows consumers will readily pay for quality and exceptional service, even in difficult economic periods. We have an innate need to be respected, valued and appreciated. It’s also clear that in the absence of an exceptional experience, consumers will choose based on price.

From the customer’s perspective, identified as being the main reasons for businesses not providing an exceptional experience are: Read more ...

A Leap Of Faith is the title of a chapter I wrote for the book The Power of 100 and it aptly describes how I came to be writing this blog in anticipation of an interview for my first The WINonline Show tomorrow. 

Not that long ago I was living a completely different life where the idea of running my own training company, being an author, speaking internationally, and having my own show, was not even remotely on my radar.

This journey has certainly been an amazing one.

I feel so privileged to be invited to host an online show and I am looking forward to sharing many tips and strategies, as well as interviewing some wonderful people who are willing to give freely of their knowledge and experience in order to help others.

The show is called 'Defining Your Edge' and will cover an array of topics, some of which are: 

• Defining Your Competitive Edge

• Building a Service Culture

• A Business is Like a Gift

• Your Personal Brand is Your Professional Brand

• The Power of Attitude

Please join me, where I hope you will enjoy what I share with you. 

Kind regards

Christine