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Category: business coaching

How to Delegate Effectively

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by Kent Boehm

How to Delegate

How to delegate effectively means understanding that delegating tasks and authority is a defining aspect of being a boss, yet personal experience has likely shown you that it’s a skill that many managers lack. Whether it’s a lack of delegation, too much delegation, micromanaging, or putting the wrong people in the wrong places, a failure to properly assign tasks to people can result in a dysfunctional workplace. As the boss of your own workplace, you’ll be responsible for deciding who goes where and who does what. Much of your workplace’s productivity and morale will depend on your ability to not just lead but lead well. Continue reading “How to Delegate Effectively”

Are You Closing The Conversation?

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by Kent Boehm

Closing the Conversation

The common goal has always been to close the sale, but what about the interaction with your customer? When it comes to the daily interactions you have with your customers –  Are you closing the conversation? The engine that drives your business is your customers and that is why it is an important skill that customer service team members should have.  This does not just mean that you stop and move along once the customer is “ok with everything,” but that you have gone above and beyond to do what you can for them. Continue reading “Are You Closing The Conversation?”

The Value of Customer Loyalty Programs

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by Kent Boehm

As a business owner one of the most important things you can remember is the value of customer retention. Establishing credibility and building the relationship to a profitable customer requires constant effort. It actually costs 500% more to acquire new customers than keeping your current customers. One reason is the fact that loyal customers are worth more because they actually spend more later on their latter purchases.

Loyalty programs are a great way to retain customers and build relationships with 87% of shoppers saying they want loyalty programs. Consumers are clearly accustomed to being rewarded for their shopping purchases and it has almost become an expectation. The purchasing power of the millennial is especially very strong with  68% of millennials saying that they wouldn’t be loyal to a brand if it doesn’t have a good loyalty program. The fact is that these loyalty programs are the start to a solid relationship with your customers and continuous growth.

Some of the common programs we think of here in Canada are Air-miles, Shoppers Drug Mart and Petro Points. The questions many ask is, should you start loyalty program if you are a small business and will your reward pay off like the large scale programs? The answer is…yes!  Your loyalty program will actually increase your marketing efforts by allowing you to communicate regularly with your current customers who already know you and have built trust with your business. You are then able to reach them at the appropriate times and build the relationship even further. Continue reading “The Value of Customer Loyalty Programs”

Carrot, Egg or Coffee Bean – Which One Are You?

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by Kent Boehm

Egg, Carrot, or Coffee bean?

Resiliency in business is extremely important. There is a story I always love to share about a young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She didn’t know how she was going to make it and how she wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling.Every time she solved one problem, a new one arose. Continue reading “Carrot, Egg or Coffee Bean – Which One Are You?”

Creating Above and Beyond Customer Experiences

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by Kent Boehm

Customer Service is a sector that should be a priority for improvement and investment. Adequate is not enough anymore and to create a memorable experience a business needs to go “above and beyond” in their method of service. The 2015 Global State of Multichannel Customer Service Report states that 60% of customers have higher expectations for customer service than the year before. Exceeding expectations for your customers can start by practicing the following:

Have a Conversation

A conversational approach creates a much more memorable experience than a transactional approach.  Starting a conversation can build a relationship and make waiting times go by faster. Reaching out to your customers and ask them about their day, recent family adventures or even their pets. Learning as much about a person can help you help them in the future.

Watch Your Competition

Keeping tabs on your competition, their strategies and their processes is a great way to provide a custom service experience on your side. What can you do to make their visit different from other businesses? By going above and beyond with your service it can show just how “average” the competition is. Continue reading “Creating Above and Beyond Customer Experiences”

Why Customer Complaints Are Great for Business

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by Kent Boehm

Customer complaints can create a sense of doubt about how we run our business, however, what if we approached them as opportunities? The reality is complaints are ok, if you respond and do something about them. If no words were spoken by our customers about how we do business the same mistakes would go unnoticed. Only a small amount of people will speak up while the majority of others will quietly ignore and move on. In fact, only 4% of customers who are unsatisfied take the time to speak out.  You would never know that you are losing potential business if some complaints did not arise and you weren’t proactive in making needed changes.

Employees

Customers may make complaints about a specific employee.  This may be an innocent mistake or a continual recurring problem that again is affecting all the customers they come in contact with. By channeling the problem to a specific individual you can deal with that individual one on one and ensure that the issue does not affect the company as a whole. We are not involved in every interaction that our individual employees do and therefore when customers speak out it’s a great opportunity to really learn how that individual is handling their job. Continue reading “Why Customer Complaints Are Great for Business”

Happy Employees Leads to Higher Profits

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by Kent Boehm

Happy employees higher profit

Are your employees just as happy as your customers? When we think of profits we usually associate them with our customers and while they are the mainstream of revenue employees are a major factor when it comes to increasing profits. Focus and invest time into ensuring your customer service team are truly happy with their job and their workplace. Fostering an environment that allows the customer service team to enjoy what they do and excel will translate into a stronger and happier team who want to fulfil customer needs. The quality of life that is provided to employees is one of the greatest factors in how they decide to interact with customers. Continue reading “Happy Employees Leads to Higher Profits”

7 Tactics to Beat the Competition

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by Kent Boehm

Business Practices

It’s often far easier to rest where you are than to push yourself to the next level. Complacency, however, leads to mediocrity; which almost always leads to disaster. So, if this is true, how can you keep yourself responsive, resourceful, and recharged to keep up with the competitive business environment you are part of? Here are seven tactics to help you move ahead, even while others fall behind:
1. Practice self-discipline versus self-indulgence. Self-indulgence is thinking about how you feel at a given moment, then deciding what action, if any to take and worrying about the consequences later. Self-discipline is thinking first about the consequences; then taking appropriate action, and feeling great about your decision. Think about it this way:
Continue reading “7 Tactics to Beat the Competition”

The Four Steps to a Super Attitude

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by Kent Boehm

The Four Steps to a Super Attitude

As an entrepreneur you are going to have many up and downs and it is important to remember one thing – it is not what happens to you that counts. It is how you react to the situation, especially when you have unexpected problems of any kind.

What can  you can do to assure that your attitude is the very best it can be under all circumstances? Continue reading “The Four Steps to a Super Attitude”

What Does It Mean to Be Customer Centered?

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by Kent Boehm

What Does It Mean to Be Customer Centered?

Did you know that some of the most successful companies in the world run a customer centred approach? A recent article was published highlighting the top ten companies rated by J.D. Power.  They range from automotive, to finance to insurance; but they all have one main similarity, and that is that they are customer centered. A customer focus is one of the main factors in business success. So what does it actually mean to be customer centered, and how do you know businesses are following through in the process?

A Customer-Centered Business:

Listens to Their Customers

They get to know their customers, understand their needs and then act on it. TD Bank is a great example of this.  One of the reasons they have landed the first in overall customer satisfaction on J.D. Power’s annual Canadian Retail Banking Satisfaction study for the last 10 years is that they listen to their customers. They have launched marketing campaigns such as #TDThanksYou which gave away big ticket items to customers, to simply ensure that systems like their online banking system, are in tune with what customers are asking for. They listened and they delivered. Continue reading “What Does It Mean to Be Customer Centered?”