business - Business Coaching Calgary

Your Most Precious Resource is Time – Use it Well

Posted on April 3, 2019
Updated: April 26, 2019
by Kent Boehm

If you ask a business owner what their most precious resource is, they’ll usually give one of a few answers. Money is the most common, while others say their employees, community, or family. What is less stated is the one resource that can never be replenished or gained back – time. Once you waste your time with something, you can never get it back again. Some busier business owners understand this, but newer ones haven’t yet learned how to utilize their time effectively.

Business owners that don’t have enough time to do things usually have the same problems: they don’t delegate tasks well, they don’t prioritize tasks, and/or they aren’t well-organized in their day-to-day life. These issues are as simple to fix as they are common; most of the time, you only need to make a slight change in how you accomplish or go about completing certain tasks in order to squeeze more productivity in the time that you use. Continue reading “Your Most Precious Resource is Time – Use it Well”

Creating Above and Beyond Customer Experiences

Posted on September 1, 2016
Updated: April 26, 2019
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

Posted on August 22, 2016
Updated: April 25, 2019
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”

You Are What You Feed Your Mind

Posted on August 8, 2016
Updated: April 25, 2019
by Kent Boehm

“You are what you feed your mind.”

-Dr. Frederick Eikerenkoetter

It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. St. Matthew 4:4 A SCIENCE OF LIVING PRINCIPLE. You will never get any further in life than the ideas in your mind. It is important to feed your mind only right ideas. Continue reading “You Are What You Feed Your Mind”

What Does It Mean to Be Customer Centered?

Posted on August 1, 2016
Updated: April 25, 2019
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?”

Customer Service on Twitter

Posted on July 28, 2016
Updated: April 26, 2019
by Kent Boehm

Did you know that you can use Twitter to connect with your customers and provide customer service? With over 99% of brands on Twitter having a reason to stand out is key. A customer service strategy that uses Twitter as a customer service portal is a great way of connecting with your customers and catching inquiries on the spot.

Some brands even have a customer support system already in place on Twitter. Companies such as Nike have a support handle which is a separate account, just for customer inquiries. Any tweet to this account is handled by the customer support team and responses are seen quickly. Not only does this make things easier for Nike, but the account also has over 465K tweets. Continue reading “Customer Service on Twitter”

Serving The Millennial

Posted on July 25, 2016
Updated: April 26, 2019
by Kent Boehm

Millennials are a powerful generation who are well informed and have strong decision making skills. When we think of millennials we think of the younger generation, but how young are we talking? A millennial, also known as “generation Y” is someone born between 1980 and 2000 and they account for almost one-third of the country’s population. According to the 2011 Canadian census, the largest age group in Calgary was a millennial age group of 24-29. Once the 2016 numbers are released the millennial group is likely to remain a large portion of the Calgary population and one of the reasons why businesses need to keep up to this smart and tech savvy generation. Continue reading “Serving The Millennial”

Hiring an Excellent Customer Service Team

Posted on July 11, 2016
Updated: April 26, 2019
by Kent Boehm

Great customer service in Calgary is essential for a business’s reputation and company image. One poor customer service experience can turn people away indefinitely from your business, whereas excellent customer service is often remembered above and beyond any other aspect of the company.

It’s all about people and that starts with hiring the right ones! If you have a great customer service team you can run your day to day business knowing that your customers will be taken care of properly without affecting your bottom line. It is not always an easy job and can put employees in difficult situations. Some of the skills and characteristics to look for when interviewing a customer service candidate would be: Continue reading “Hiring an Excellent Customer Service Team”

Reducing Customer Response Times

Posted on July 8, 2016
Updated: April 26, 2019
by Kent Boehm

Do you start to wonder if your email hasn’t been responded to within a few hours?

In today’s world where most communication is done through technology, we have been spoiled by quick response times. The response time refers to the time it takes a customer service representative to make the first point of contact after an inquiry is made. Even if you cannot resolve the issue at the first point of contact, acknowledging them in any way keeps the customer focused with you.

“A survey by Nielsen shows that 33% of customers’ would still recommend a brand that was quick to reply, even if the response was not complete.”

Does your company track response times and monitor? The average first response time can be calculated by taking the total of all response times and dividing it by the number of cases that you resolved. By knowing what your response times you can ensure that your company continues to increase efficiency by decreasing the rate over a period of time. If you have said that you will respond in a certain amount of time it is critical that you hold yourself accountable to those times. Continue reading “Reducing Customer Response Times”

Motivating Employees To Provide Great Customer Service

Posted on July 5, 2016
Updated: April 26, 2019
by Kent Boehm

You have your customer service dream team now, but how do you motivate them to do the best that they can do? Although an employee may know about the best customer service practices and can run the daily tasks associated with their position getting them to go above and beyond to really wow a customer can take some motivation.

Did you know that 55% of customers will pay more to go with a company that will provide a better customer experience? It is still the number one factor in building trust with the company and the reason why you should invest in your customer service team.

We all know that monetary motivators such as cash bonuses are a great incentive for a team to perform better; but how do you go beyond these types of incentives to really keep a motivated team doing the best job that they can do? Continue reading “Motivating Employees To Provide Great Customer Service”