Category: Small Business

Deliver +1

Posted on by Tom Kavanaugh, MA

Always Deliver +1!

Deliver + 1

In the last post we talked about how to figure out what your customers want out of a positive shopping experience.

Today we’ll talk about the concept of Deliver +1 and how this concept can take your customer service to the next level. I’ve decided to split up this post so the next one will cover the 1% Rule.

Consistency is the key to any great customer service experience. If you want to take your satisfied customers to Raving Fan status, you have to go above and beyond the average customer service experience.

There are three ways to develop consistency:

             Avoid offering too many customer-service options.

We sometimes get so caught up in giving customers what they want we get away from our original vision. Instead, stay true to your vision and offer one or two solid customer service techniques that will set you apart from the competition.

You need to fine tune the current systems you are using before you can add anything to the mix. There’s nothing worse than launching a new program when you haven’t even worked out the kinks of an old system.

             Put solid systems into place.

Once you know what you’re going to offer, you need to have a system in place to execute it flawlessly every time. This system needs to consist of the right people in the right roles and responsibilities and technology that guarantees a positive experience every time. Emphasis needs to be placed on the results, which ultimately is the satisfaction of the customer.

             Good training is the key.

Once you have your system in place you need to train people to use it properly and efficiently. This helps your people deliver the results your customers are looking for.

While training is essential for the system to work and for all your people to work together cohesively, appreciation will go a long way.

I hope this has given you a look into what you need to do in order to have a quality customer service system in place.

If you’re having a hard time deciding on what you want, the tools, resources and coaches in the GUIDED TOUR can help you define the wants and needs of your company in relation to customer service.

I can help you work through all these areas and give your business a jumpstart that puts you ahead of your competition right from the start.

Feel free to visit https://newcoachingstrategies.com for your GUIDED TOUR and a complimentary copy of my first book in the five-book series:

Business Breakthrough Secrets, Volume I, The Secret Formula To Discovering $10K Hidden Inside Your Business In 45 Minutes Or Less… Guaranteed! 
​
​If you have further questions about this article, please leave me a message and I’ll respond as soon as possible!

Shhh! Another Secret Revealed!

Posted on by Tom Kavanaugh, MA

Shhh! I Have Another Secret!

Another Secret Revealed

In the last post we talked about the first secret to building a solid customer service plan and how to decide what your vision is.

Today we’ll talk about the second secret in taking your satisfied customers to raving fans:

You must know what your customers want.

Know who your customers are, and you will know better how to serve them. Demographics are really important here. An upper-class woman in her 30’s is going to have completely different expectations than a working class man in his 50’s.

There are four main areas you need to consider and plan when figuring out what your customers want:

  • Listen to Your Customers
  • Ask Your Customers Sincerely
  • Offer More than Just a Product/Service
  • Know When to Ignore Them

These are all important when deciding what your customers want out of their shopping experience.

Listen to Your Customers

You need to listen to both what they say and what they don’t say. Customers may say they want one thing and really mean something else. For example, if you customers are begging for lower prices, you may find out their real priority is quick delivery.

Also, listen to your “silent” customers. These are the customers don’t bother to complain because the service is so bad they’ve just given up and don’t feel like their voice matters. They feel unwanted and when a competitor shows up, they’ll be gone.

Lastly, you need to listen to customers who only reply with “fine”. These customers are similar to the “silent” customers in that they are so used to bad customer service they only give a monotone response. 

Ask Your Customers Sincerely

If you aren’t sincere when you ask their opinion, they are going to see right through you. You may be thinking, “What about the customers who aren’t saying anything?” You need to ask them sincere questions that get them thinking about their experiences. Make them feel like you really care, and you should!

Offer More than Just a Product/Service

Your customers are looking for much more than a simple product or service, they are looking for an experience that makes them feel good. They gauge every step of the process with a value. When you take this into consideration and treat them like people, they will feel like they belong.

Know When to Ignore Them

You may think this goes beyond providing good customer service, but in reality you can’t give them everything and someone people you will never make happy. You have to set limits and stick to them. If your vision and company don’t meet the needs of the customer, they will be best suited somewhere else.

These are the steps and tricks to figuring out what your customers want and how you can use them to work on your customer service vision and plan.

If you’re having a hard time deciding on what you want, the tools, resources and coaches in the GUIDED TOUR can help you define the wants and needs of your company in relation to customer service.

I can help you work through all these areas and give your business a jumpstart that puts you ahead of your competition right from the start.

Feel free to visit https://newcoachingstrategies.com for your GUIDED TOUR and a complimentary copy of my first book in the five-book series:

Business Breakthrough Secrets, Volume I, The Secret Formula To Discovering $10K Hidden Inside Your Business In 45 Minutes Or Less… Guaranteed! 
​
​If you have further questions about this article, please leave me a message and I’ll respond as soon as possible!

Shhh! I Have A Secret!

Posted on by Tom Kavanaugh, MA

Shhh! I Have A Secret!

Shhh… I Have a Secret

Customer service is a pretty hot topic and can make or break your business.

Consumers have little patience for lousy customer service and easily get tired of waiting in long lines, trying to get a live person on the line, going through an interrogation to return something or trying to communicate through a language barrier.

If you provide them with a simple, efficient, pleasant experience they will revisit your business over and over. More importantly, they will tell everyone they know!

There are three secrets to good customer service, the first one we’re going to conquer is knowing exactly what YOU want.

You are the captain of the ship and the visionary for the future of your business, so you need to have a clearly defined plan for your business and that includes customer service. There are three main goals you need to consider:

  1. It needs to be easy for your customers to do business with you. You can do this with advertised discounts, kiosks, your website, and other technology-based programs to help them shop.
  2. Doing business with you needs to be a warm and pleasant experience.

Your staff must be knowledgeable, approachable, warm and patient.

Your customers need to feel like they are getting a good value for their time and money.

Perceived value goes beyond the price of the products and extends to their shopping experience.

  1. Change your mind set and ask yourself “How can I NOT afford to do these things?”

This shouldn’t be a question of expenses but, rather, making and keeping happy customers.

Which these thoughts in mind you also need to take a few things into consideration when deciding on the actual programs and standards you’ll put into place.

  • Share your customer service vision with the rest of your staff.
  • Connect your incentive programs and bonuses directly to customer service.
  • Monitor the level of customer service your staff is putting out.
  • Know when you can ignore what your customers want.
  • Continuously focus on your goals

Now, that you know what you want you can engage by start thinking about how to meet those wants and finally, create a positive customer service experience.

If you’re having a hard time deciding on what you want, the tools, resources and coaches in the GUIDED TOUR can help you define the wants and needs of your company in relation to customer service.

I can help you work through all these areas and give your business a jumpstart that puts you ahead of your competition right from the start.

Feel free to visit https://newcoachingstrategies.com for your GUIDED TOUR and a complimentary copy of my first book in the five-book series:

Business Breakthrough Secrets, Volume I, The Secret Formula To Discovering $10K Hidden Inside Your Business In 45 Minutes Or Less… Guaranteed! 
​
​If you have further questions about this article, please leave me a message and I’ll respond as soon as possible!

 

Make It Pop!

Posted on by Tom Kavanaugh, MA

Advertising Pops!

Make it Pop!

There are 5 major components to good advertising copy: (The order of these is essential to success)

  • Command Attention
  • Showcase Benefits of Products/Services
  • Prove the Benefits
  • Persuade People to Embrace the Benefits
  • Call to Action

Advertising is sales in print. So, you need to think about the unique benefits your products/services offer and showcase that in a persuasive way. You need to emphasize results, not features.

Let’s take a minute to talk about each of these components:

  1. Command Attention: This is usually accomplished with the headline. You need an attention-getter that makes people want to know more about your products/services. The best headlines give a vivid portrayal of the benefits or show how a problem can be avoided with your products/services. The headline is the advertisement for the advertisement.
  2. Showcase Benefits: You have to showcase the benefits of your products and services and, more importantly, show how they will solve or prevent a problem. They need to know what’s in it for them. Include useful, factual and clear information to show precisely what the benefits are and how they are going to help the customer.
  3. Offer Proof: This is where you prove what the advertisement is offering. You need to establish you have a method to deliver. Consider information that establishes credibility and past performance.
  4. Persuade: You need to add compelling reasons for your potential customers to purchase your products/services. Use a hard sell approach and create scarcity. This will enact your potential customers to feel like they have to act now. Which leads into the last component.
  5. Call to Action: You need to compel your potential customers to DO something. They need to check out your site, sign up for your newsletter, purchase your products, contact you about services…something.  Offer a freebie-a booklet, sample, product, bonus, demo, consult, limited time price…the list goes on. There are lots of ways to get potential customers excited about ordering and help them feel like they are getting an amazing deal.

Good advertisements include all of these components and are not complete without any of them. You can sit down and think through any one of these components, then figure out how to best place them together for the most effectiveness. We can help you with this too.

If you’re having a hard time deciding on what you want, the tools, resources and coaches in the GUIDED TOUR can help you define the wants and needs of your company in relation to customer service.

I can help you work through all these areas and give your business a jumpstart that puts you ahead of your competition right from the start.

Feel free to visit https://newcoachingstrategies.com for your GUIDED TOUR and a complimentary copy of my first book in the five-book series:

Business Breakthrough Secrets, Volume I, The Secret Formula To Discovering $10K Hidden Inside Your Business In 45 Minutes Or Less… Guaranteed! 
​
​If you have further questions about this article, please leave me a message and I’ll respond as soon as possible!

Direct Response or Bust!

Posted on by Tom Kavanaugh, MA
Direct Response Coaching
All experts in Direct Response have coaches!

Direct response marketing is a marketing that demands a direct response from your potential customers. This type of marketing is used to answer questions, present your branding, products and the reason you do what you do.

Customers love this, as they are offered the opportunity to response, whether that be in the way of signing up for a newsletter, posting a comment on your site or blog, or purchasing a product from you.

So, what does direct response marketing look like? Well, it comes in many forms, including:

• Direct mail
• Print ads
• Radio and TV ads
• Coupons or other incentives
• Telemarketing

Some of the advantages of direct marketing are:

• A great way to use free time during lulls in business
• Productive way to communicate and empower you to create more relationships
• Great way to up- and cross-sell to current customers
• Low cost way to rustle up new business
• Used as leverage to turn small sales into large sales
• Supplement your current marketing program
• Cost-effective way to reach target markets
• Offers measurable results
• Reach outside your local area for new business
• Increase the effectiveness of your sales force

These are all great things that can come from just taking a few simple steps to putting together a direct response marketing plan and executing it.

“I honestly don’t think you’ll ever find a safer, lower-risk, higher-profit method of increasing your business or profession than direct-response marketing.” Jay Abraham

Direct response marketing is one of the best ways to launch your business on a large scale and reach out to everyone in your target market whether they are in your local area or not.

If you’re having a hard time deciding on what you want, the tools, resources and coaches in the GUIDED TOUR can help you define the wants and needs of your company in relation to customer service.

I can help you work through all these areas and give your business a jumpstart that puts you ahead of your competition right from the start.

Feel free to visit https://newcoachingstrategies.com for your GUIDED TOUR and a complimentary copy of my first book in the five-book series:

Business Breakthrough Secrets, Volume I, The Secret Formula To Discovering $10K Hidden Inside Your Business In 45 Minutes Or Less… Guaranteed!

If you have further questions about this article, please leave me a message at tom@newcoachingstrategies.com and I’ll respond as soon as possible!

The Business Re-Set – Add Some Compost (Part 2)

Posted on by Tom Kavanaugh, MA

Add some compost

Add Some Compost

In the last post we talked about the first three of the seven specific areas you need to consider in your business re-set process. Here are all seven again:

  • Primary Aim
  • Strategic Objectives
  • Organizational Strategy
  • Management Strategy
  • People Strategy
  • Marketing Strategy
  • Systems Strategy

These seven areas will fine turn your plan for the ultimate level of success. Today we are going to cover the last four.

Think of constructing your business model like planting a tree. At first, it’s so small and weak you wonder if it will even make it through the night.

But you keep watering, fertilizing, and nurturing it. Your ideas will grow the trunk and each of these strategies will extend out as the branches of your now strong tree. Finding the perfect support staff, employees, vendors/suppliers, and other relationships will make your tree flourish with leaves and flowers.

Management Strategy

The way you structure your management team is not only essential to your growth, but the happiness of your employees and, ultimately, your customers/clients. This strategy is results-oriented and doesn’t depend on the people, but the actual system that’s in place.

A management strategy is, in short, a set of standards that include goals, rules, a mission statement, a market dominating mantra/statement, and other concrete things that tell your employees how to act, your management how to grow your business and your customers/clients what to expect.

These should all be in perfect alignment with your business goals.

Employee Appreciation

You need to put together a people strategy that shows your employees how you feel about their job performance and dedication to your business.

They also need to understand “why” they are doing specific tasks. This helps them to personally connect to their job which in turn leads to better production and a happier workplace.

There are a number of strategies you can use to keep it interested at “the office”:

  • Performance Incentive Programs
  • Contests that reward high performance
  • Employee of the Month Program
  • Performance/Holiday Bonuses
  • Profit Partnership Eligibility
  • Equity Partnership Eligibility

These are just a few of the ideas you can use.

One of the best ways to appreciate your employees is by calling a meeting and asking them how they would like to be rewarded.

Think about it for awhile and put the best strategy into play. Keep it fresh and change up the strategy you use from time to time to keep your employees guessing. Once they get used to the prize, it’s time for a whole new approach.

You need to build a community within your company. There needs to be support, appreciation and respect. The more “at home” an employee feels, the better they will perform and the higher their level of loyalty.

Marketing Strategy

Marketing is, of course, essential to the success of any business, but it also must work cohesively with the other strategies you’re using.

There are two major pillars of a successful marketing strategy-the demographic and psychographic profiles of your customers.

The psychographic tells you what your customers are the most likely to buy and the demographic tells you who they are, which can help you learn why they buy specific items.

Without this information it simply doesn’t matter how good your business prototype is.

Systems Strategy

There are three types of systems in every business:

  • Hard Systems
  • Soft Systems

Information Systems

Hard systems refer to inanimate system or systems that have no “life”. Soft systems are those that could be living. Information systems which are, of course, everything else, including customer data, product information, financial…anything with data and numbers.

The most important of all three systems is the soft systems because it includes the sales systems your business uses. In your sales system the two keys to success are: structure and substance. Structure being what you sell and substance being how you sell it.

All three systems are essential to the success of your business and while they all have their own very specific roles, they all must work together to get the job done. This also goes for your entire business development program.

I want to take a moment to recap on the ideas we went over through the business develop lessons.

An entrepreneurial myth, or e-myth, is an assumption that anyone can succeed at business with:

  • Desire
  • Some capital
  • Projected a targeted profit

There are essentially three key roles that need to be filled to set your business up for success:

  • The Technician
  • The Manager
  • The Entrepreneur

The four different stages of a business life cycle are:

  • Infancy
  • Adolescence
  • Growing Pains
  • Maturity

There are a few things we are going to talk about:

  • Business Format Model
  • The Business Model Prototype
  • Business Model Prototype Standards

There are three main areas of business development:

  • Innovation
  • Quantification
  • Orchestration

Seven specific areas you need to consider in your business re-set process. Here are all seven again:

  • Primary Aim
  • Strategic Objectives
  • Organizational Strategy
  • Management Strategy
  • People Strategy
  • Marketing Strategy
  • System Strategy

I can help you work through all of these areas and give your business a jumpstart that puts you ahead of your competition right from the start.

If you’re having a hard time deciding on what you want, the tools, resources and coaches in the GUIDED TOUR can help you define the wants and needs of your company in relation to customer service.

I can help you work through all these areas and give your business a jumpstart that puts you ahead of your competition right from the start.

Feel free to visit https://newcoachingstrategies.com for your GUIDED TOUR and a complimentary copy of my first book in the five-book series:

Business Breakthrough Secrets, Volume I, The Secret Formula To Discovering $10K Hidden Inside Your Business In 45 Minutes Or Less… Guaranteed! 
​
​If you have further questions about this article, please leave me a message and I’ll respond as soon as possible!

The Business Re-Set Puzzle

Posted on by Tom Kavanaugh, MA

The seven specific areas you need to consider in your business re-set process:

• Primary Aim
• Strategic Objectives
• Organizational Strategy
• Management Strategy
• People Strategy
• Marketing Strategy
• Systems Strategy

As we emerge from the Pandemic-induced hibernation of our businesses, many of us have to re-set the meter; almost as if we’re starting over.

These seven areas will fine turn your plan for the ultimate level of success. In this lesson we are going to cover the first three.

Primary Aim

It’s essential in business development to set goals and see a vision for the future.

This needs to go beyond the business, and you need to think about what you want out of life.

What do you dream about?

How do you see your success unfolding?

Knowing and understanding these things will give you the momentum to get started and the stamina to see it through.

Even take a minute to write them down and tape to your desk for a constant reminder of what you’re aiming for.

Strategic Objectives

These are essential in taking your business from surviving to thriving. All of these objectives should offer solutions for how to get to your primary goal. There are many things you can use to set strategic objectives, but here are a couple of the most popular:

1. Money: Setting monetary goals is a great, simple way to see how you are doing at any point in the game. It’s easy to measure and easy to find adjustments to help meet this goal. Remember, what gets measured gets done!

2. Worthy Opportunities: When considering partnerships and other business opportunities you need to think about whether or not they will help you reach your primary goal.

Those that will are the best opportunities to seriously consider.

Those that are not should be placed in the “back burner” position.

The key in setting standards and goals is not to limit you or stress yourself out. You need to find some quantifiable things you can use to measure your progress toward your primary goal.

These are just two suggestions, but make sure no matter what standards you set you are paying attention to the details, as these are some of the biggest keys to your success.

Organizational Strategy

The strength of your organizational structure can make or break your business, so it’s important to take the time to put together a solid structure for your business to grow.

Generally, a company is organized around the roles and responsibilities that need to be taken care of daily and the personalities that need to fulfill those roles.

No matter what roles and responsibilities you’ve defined for your employees, you must always keep your personal primary aim separate from your company’s primary aim or mission statement. Once you’ve identified the primary aim for your company it will be easy to set up a position structure that will work.

Don’t forget to put together position contracts. Your employees should sign a statement of their roles and responsibilities. This helps keep them clear for you, the employee and other employees/vendors or other individuals.

You can see how these areas all work together to build a solid structure on which to build your business.

If you need help defining any of these areas, you can check out the resources, tools and speak with one of our fantastic coaches during your GUIDED TOUR.

Feel free to visit https://newcoachingstrategies.com for your GUIDED TOUR and a complimentary copy of my first book in the five-book series, Business Breakthrough Secrets, Volume I, The Secret Formula To Discovering $10K Hidden Inside Your Business In 45 Minutes Or Less… Guaranteed!

Mortar Makes It Happen

Posted on by Tom Kavanaugh, MA

Today I’d like to talk about the three keys to business development and how you can put the right bricks in place to build a solid foundation.

There are three main areas of business development:

  • Innovation
  • Quantification
  • Orchestration

 

If done well these three areas will help you build a solid foundation for your business. Let’s talk about each one of these for just a minute.

Innovation

Innovation should not be confused with creativity, which is the expression of ideas. Innovation is taking these ideas and putting them into action. This is where a large amount of your focus should be in the beginning and even throughout your business’ entire lifespan.

Quantification

This, of course, refers to the numbers. We are talking about the value of your innovation. The best way to gauge this is by your customer response. Look to positive responses for what you are doing right and keep doing it. Look to your negative responses to find out what you’re doing wrong and fix it. This will enable you to keep growing and progressing with the needs of your customers and business climate.

Orchestration

Once you’ve had a chance to find what areas are working, you can narrow down those areas and concentrate on making them the stand out ideas. You shift your focus here to get the most out of your business and to meet the needs of your customers.

We can help you work through these three areas to put together your franchise prototype during your GUIDED TOUR.

In the next few lessons we are going to transition to the 7 specific areas you need to consider in your franchise prototype process:

  • Primary Aim
  • Strategic Objectives
  • Organizational Strategy
  • Management Strategy
  • People Strategy
  • Marketing Strategy
  • Systems Strategy

 

These 7 areas will fine turn your plan for the ultimate level of success.

Turn Me Right Round, Baby… Right Round!

Posted on by Tom Kavanaugh, MA

The biggest area of turn-key businesses is franchises. There is a franchise for every industry in the world and they are fairly easy to acquire and come with practically a pop out-of-the-box pre-assembled system. McDonald’s is a prime example. In fact, a $40 billion, 28,707 strong example.

There are a few things we are going to talk about:

  • Business Format Franchise
  • The Franchise Prototype
  • Franchise Prototype Standards

 

Business Format Franchise

The business format franchise came from an earlier model call the “trade name” franchise. The big change was in the rights. During the “trade name” days the franchise owner only had marketing right’s, now franchise owners have ownership rights to the entire business including systems. This has allowed for a shift in focus to go from the quality and name recognition of the products carrying the business to sales techniques that carry the business.

The Franchise Prototype

It was really the franchise prototypes that allowed for the changes to be made that help today’s franchises really shine with the techniques developed by the owners instead of the corporation. This can make a significant difference in the success of the franchise as the owner can custom tailor their marketing and promotions to the direct needs of their local target customers.

Franchise Prototype Standards

Now, the above being said, no one in their right mind would purchase a franchise if the parent company didn’t have a solid plan of action set up to ensure the prospective success of the business. So, there are a few standards that are put into place that helps jump-start the process of opening a successful franchise.

Build a model of prospective customers/clients, suppliers, creditors, and employees who will consistently offer high-quality work.

  1. Build a user-friendly model that can be used by individuals of any skill set.
  2. Build a defect-free model.
  3. Build a model with Operations Manuals.
  4. Build a model that will provide guaranteed, consistent results.
  5. Build a model that encompasses the same branding in color, dress, and facilities codes.

 

These are all ways the parent corporation makes sure their brand stays the same and in front of the minds of customers. When you are purchasing a widely-known brand you will attract customers just for being you.

If you are considering purchasing a franchise, talk with one of our experienced business coaches during our GUIDED TOUR.

Expand The Life Of Your Business

Posted on by Tom Kavanaugh, MA

Today I’m going to talk about the life cycle of a business and how to get the most out of each cycle while also extending the lifespan of your business.

The four different stages of a business life cycle are:

  • Infancy
  • Adolescence
  • Growing Pains
  • Maturity

 

We’ll talk a little about what each of these cycles means and how they can each help expand your business’ lifespan.

 

Infancy

This is generally considered the technician’s phase, which is the owner. At this point, the relationship between the business and the owner is that of a parent and a new baby. There is an impenetrable bond that is necessary to determine the path your business will follow.

The key is to know your business must grow in order to flourish. You cannot stage in this stage forever.

Adolescence

In this stage, you need to start bringing your support staff together to delegate to and allow growth to happen. The first line of defense is your technical person as they need to bring a certain level of technical experience. This cycle really belongs to the manager though. The planning stage needs to start and a relationship should be built with the entrepreneur to plan for the future.

Growing Pains

There’s a point in every business when business explodes and becomes chaotic. This is referred to as growing pains. It’s a good problem to have, but a problem nonetheless. You are often faced with a number of choices:

  • Avoid growth and stay small
  • Go broke
  • Push forward into the next cycle

 

Maturity

The last cycle is maturity, though this doesn’t mean the end of your business. Your passion for growth must continue in order for your business to succeed. You need to keep an entrepreneurial perspective in order to push your business forward.

You see how all three of these cycles are connected and depend on a strong foundation for each one of them for your business to be and continue to be successful. All three of your key roles must also work together to work through these cycles.

If you’re having trouble putting together your business life cycles and figuring out which of the key roles you fit into, try our GUIDED TOUR and work with one of our amazing coaches.