by Scott Dunn
How do you decide where to shop or whom to select as your service provider? If you are like most people, there are a variety of factors to consider from price, quality, location, convenience, reputation, and trust. Those factors also come into play when people decide whether or not they want to conduct business with your company.
As a business owner, it can be daunting to think that every single one of your employees represents the face of your business. Do the employees care about the company as much as you do? Will they do everything in their power to earn and retain a customer’s business? Will they safeguard the company’s best interests? Do they tie their own personal futures to the success of your company?
Customers know your business by the person who services them. Your front lines need to reverberate your set business principles and service standards through every action they take.
That’s where our first law of establishing and keeping Customers’ Loyalty comes in:
1. Build staff loyalty
It’s a fact: firms with high levels of customer loyalty have also earned high levels of staff loyalty. The key rule of loyalty: Establish trust, goodwill, and relevance with your employees so that they, in turn, serve the customers on your behalf.
2. Practice the 80/20 rule
Roughly speaking, 80% of your revenue is generated by 20% of your customers. A smart company segments customers by value and monitors activities closely to ensure high-value customers get their fair share of special offers and promotions.
3. Know your loyalty stages
There are seven stages of customer loyalty: suspect, prospect, shopper (first time buyer), customer (repeat buyer), member or client, advocate and raving fan. By understanding where your customers fall in that matrix, you can better determine what’s necessary to move that customer to the next level of loyalty.
4. Serve first, sell second
Today’s customers are inundated with a variety of both feeble and brilliantattempts at garnering their business. They have quickly developed an intolerance for “being sold” and instead prefer to do business with personable and knowledgeable professionals who stand behind their products and services and value their customers’ experience. Drive the value of your customer service and sales support as much as you do the value of your products.
I’d like to share five more imperative rules to help companies establish and keep customer loyalty, and I’ll reveal those in my next blog. In the meantime, what do you think they are? What keeps you frequenting selected businesses? And can you take a “customer’s view” of your business to see where it may be lacking in any of the aforementioned areas?
Stay tuned for the remaining five keys to successfully retaining your customers’ loyalty and let me know what you think will round out the final five. I look forward to your feedback!
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There are definite ways to tighten up your expenses going into what for many businesses will be their busy season. The decisions you make today about how to implement your business practices as we close 2009 can make your P & L’s land in the black, or light up with red.
This September and October present a critical time for business owners to align their companies to come out on the side of high profitability, a good reputation for service and delivery, and an optimistic start to 2010.
As always, I would recommend carefully strategizing with a proven Business Coach, but if you are taking matters into your own hands for the time being, consider these crucial steps:
Create a Strategic Plan
“Plan your work and work your plan.” This may sound simple, but you would be surprised by how common it is for business owners to have a grand scheme in place with no break down of the necessary steps to achieve those business goals. Or, conversely, how many business owners plug away with no clear bench marks to define their deficiencies, progress, or successes.
A well-laid strategic plan avoids wasted action, reduces mistakes and idle time, and clearly communicates the company’s goals and expectations to its workforce.
Increase Customer Service
Have you ever painted a room? Then perhaps you have also found yourself mid-project only to learn you didn’t purchase enough paint, should have used a primer, or are going to run short on tray liners or trim brushes. If you had received good customer service at the store, the associate would have qualified your project and then suggested the add-ons you would need to complete your project.
Good customer service results in several values to the customer, saving time, mistakes, or unnecessary return trips, and in turn increases a stores sales, reputation, and profitability.
Consider operating your business in the same way, qualifying your customers and providing them with the necessary tools and education to accomplish their goals. Aren’t your customers coming to your business because you offer something they need? Many customers may not understand the full scope of your products or services and welcome a friendly education and appreciate add-on merchandise or services to make their lives easier.
Driving the top line often leads to the bottom line following suit. Driving add-on sales is considered a sales tool for companies because it adds to their profitability in the short term. But implementing the strategy correctly also builds your business’s reputation as the reliable go-to place in your customer’s world, positively affecting your long term success.
Renegotiate your Business’s Services
The bare bones of a business can cost a lot to operate. What would a 20% savings on operational costs mean to you each year? Just a few phone calls and some due diligence can result in a reduction of insurance premiums, equipment maintenance fees, and phone, internet and technical service costs. Make a point of shopping the competition every six months to make sure your business is receiving the best service at the most competitive prices available. There are a lot of merging and start-up service companies that are offering great deals right now, and assessing all areas of your business’s expenditure can really add up to big savings when combined over the long haul.
How about you? How often do you evaluate your business’s financial direction and ways to effectively trim costs?
Give me a call and join the conversation. I look forward to helping you!
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by Scott Dunn
People often ask me why I chose to become an ActionCOACH.
I have to say, I didn’t choose my profession—it chose me. In answer to that question and others pertaining to what qualifies me to be a business coach, I thought I would take this opportunity to share my background with you.
I am a trained Pilot, Staff Officer and Commander, having commanded a unit with over 700 personnel and earned a promotion to Colonel within my first 20 years of service. Those titles likely call to mind certain attributes, and most of them are probably true. I am decisive, skilled, and execute a structured flow in business, allowing it to run like a well-oiled machine. I’ve relaxed a little since the military, but I have retained the principles that drove me and those in my command to success.
As a multi-time National Award Winning Business Coach, I have the privilege of not only coaching businesses, but also training the coaches within the ActionCOACH organization. In short, I’m a coach and a coach’s coach. I’ve developed many businesses throughout my career, contributing to major corporate trainings within Coca Cola and AT&T. But don’t worry; I don’t work exclusively with the big dogs. I developed a one-man show into a major supplier for Home Depot in less than 24 months and work with countless small to mid-sized businesses as well.
I use my strong discipline, keen sense of observation, and critical thinking skills to help direct people to their own successes. My job is to analyze and guide a business owner’s decisions to achieve optimum health for his or her business. I’ve studied and executed the principles of human behavior, economic and workforce conditions, and applied business methodologies—all crucial components to success, and all challenges my clients face in one form or another. I also follow my own advice and create a balance in my life, meeting my work goals and nurturing my mind and soul through workouts, avid reading, ballroom dancing, and playtime with my grandchildren.
Sometimes I see business owners who sense things are off kilter but don’t know what steps to take to restore profit, morale, or structure within their organization. I see them sacrificing more than ever with longer hours at work, cuts in pay, and pouring personal finances into their business just to sustain themselves. It doesn’t have to be that way. As a business coach, I help people work smarter, not longer or harder. I also help people untangle their financial, emotional, and personal stakes in their business, restoring balance, clarity, and focus.
I am interested in hearing about the current health of your business. I’d also like to invite your questions and answers. What challenges does your business need to overcome? And if you could paint an ideal picture of your business’ health, what would it look like?
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by Scott Dunn
All of this talk about the economy has become more than just talk to the majority of business owners. For many business owners and managers, it’s become a day-to-day battle they contend with at work, only to “escape” to home and face the same financial difficulties and pressures there.
If you are like many, your household may be running on caution–dining in more frequently, holding off on large purchases, and exercising more attention to detail on everyday spending habits. At work you may have had to lay off a loyal employee, find new ways to cut spending, increase the number of hours you spend at your business, or tap into retirement savings or family funds to sustain this slow period.
When the dust settles and America restores balance to its financial framework, there will be businesses left standing. How will they do it, and will yours be one of them?
Experts say recessionary conditions both flush unstable businesses and prompt new ones to grow. Are you feeling sucked down the drain or inspired to beat the odds and come out on top? There are proven principles that successful businesses adhere to, in good times and in bad. If your business hasn’t gone through a period like this before or doesn’t have the planning experts or advisory council in place to guide it through, where do you turn?
Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO, Google says, “The Best Advice I Ever Got – Hire a Coach.” (CNN-Money, July 13, 2009). I’d like to share with you a little bit about what a business coach does. Short of personal stakes or invested emotion, an ActionCOACH (a highly skilled business coach who receives rigorous training through the ActionCOACH corporation), can take a detailed look at current business practices and offer objective solutions for both short, intermediate, and long-term success. Through a detailed analysis, an ActionCOACH guides business owners through a gamut of successful business strategies from stabilization and growth, effective production planning, satisfying and growing their consumer base, and cost-effective operational decisions.
An ActionCOACH can not only restore profitability, but he can also work with business owners to reinstitute stability and that much needed peace of mind, replacing the constant sinking feeling in the pit of their stomachs with relief and a renewed sense of enthusiasm and purpose.
Doesn’t that sound like something we could all use? Please let me know if you are currently experiencing any of these problems and would like to discuss effective solution planning for your business.
What are you currently doing to keep your business afloat? I’d love to hear about your thoughts and methodologies
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by Scott Dunn
I just can’t escape myself! Even in my down time, I find myself avidly reading and researching business materials. As a Business Coach, I study the structure of businesses from multi-million dollar corporations to mom-and-pop shops. I don’t simply look at what makes them successful, I also look at their competitors who have failed and I study the reasons for their demise. That to me is leisure reading. I guess that’s why I’m in the business I’m in—it’s just a part of what makes me tick!
Throughout my continuous research, I often come across an author who seems to have captured many of the solid principles behind successful business leaders. He learned by trial and error and then combined his own experiences with practices he emulated from other successful business leaders.
This author, Brian Tracy, has written and published over a dozen books and launched a collegiate learning center and global training enterprise. His 21 Ways to Manage Time more Effectively really sum up the traits most highly successful business owners have in common.
While some of these are natural habits for people, for others it takes a little more time and practice. I believe these things can be learned and adopted into a person’s repertoire to increase his or her chance for success, and can be applied both personally and professionally.
Here’s a look at his 21 Ways. Many of my clients especially relate to number 20, creating a balance between work and life. That’s where a Business Coach can be vital. He can help business owners put systems in place that will allow a business to run fluidly in its owner’s absence.
Are you doing any of these things to increase your success? What do you find the most important tip or strategy to managing your time effectively? I’d love to hear from you.
21 Ways to Manage Time more Effectively
Excerpt from: Eat that Frog: 21 Ways to stop Procrastination and get More Done in Less Time, by Brian Tracy
“Using time effectively is one of the main keys to success. Remember the old saying… ‘If you need something done, ask a busy person to do it!’ Why is that? Well in many cases it’s simply because they are usually organized.”
Here are 21 ways to be more effective with your time, quoted from author Brian Tracy
1. Be decisive
2. Set clear goals and objectives (using SMART)
3. Set a daily work plan (the night before)
4. Prioritize tasks using A,B,C,D,E (consider the consequences in setting priorities). Reprioritize A tasks using 1,2,3 to identify the most important A tasks and so on
5. Separate the urgent from the important (what are the long term potential consequences of doing not doing tasks?)
6. Use the law of forced efficiency (what is the highest value use of your time, right now?)
7. Use the 80/20 rule to identify the 20% of tasks that will have the greatest benefit and just do those
8. Develop stamina and high energy through proper exercise, diet and rest
9. Develop single-handling skills to concentrate on one task at a time
10. Eat that Frog (do the hardest task of the day first – don’t sit and look at it or procrastinate – just DO IT!)
11. Organize your work workspace (don’t work in a mess). Use the acronym TRAF – Toss, Refer (delegate), Action, File to help you
12. Use travel time effectively (listen to CDs, prepare a work schedule during flights/rail journeys)
13. Develop expertise in key tasks through practice and repetition
14. Work in ‘real’ time (pick up the tempo, develop a sense of urgency, do it NOW!)
15. Learn to make decisions quickly; don’t carry ifs, buts, and maybes around
16. Reengineer work processes: map them out and identify what needs to be done to reduce the number of steps by 30% minimum
17. Reinvent yourself at least once a year: identify what you need to do to become more productive, because everything changes (90 day plan)
18. Ask yourself this on a regular basis: knowing what I know right now, would I be doing this/be in this relationship/working with this client, etc.
19. Identify what tasks to procrastinate on, i.e. the lower priorities that can wait, the 80% of tasks that have less value and only contribute 20% of the output
20. Decide to work to live, not live to work. This means working towards a balanced life. It’s the quantity of time on downtime and the quality of time at work to aim for.
21. Be Intensely Action Orientated. It’s acting and executing that generate results
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These days business seems to be a sink or swim proposition. The shaky economy has naturally flushed out staggering businesses and it’s up to those who are left to stay afloat. If you are still in business, I’d like to extend you a grand kudos! You are obviously doing something right.
But if you are pouring personal funds into your dream or maxing out your lines of credit, you may wonder how you’ll continue to push through this difficult time.
This may be just the crossroads you need to make your next wise business decision. Have you considered engaging a professional to help you tighten up operations and trim the fat? Do you know exactly what a business coach can help you accomplish?
A credible business coach will assess your business to see if he can create solid and measureable improvements for you. He’ll add objectivity to your mix, scrutinizing your business plan and helping you trim excess costs by consolidating operational expenses, recommending internal adjustments, refining your resources, and helping you get rid of toxic practices. He’ll help you put systems in place that should instantly drive both your top and bottom lines, and, he’ll objectively help you work your way through decisions that should be dictated by your head, not your heart.
That last one is a biggie, folks. It’s akin to a parent who refuses to see something detrimental about their child. For most of the people I help, their business is their baby, built from their dreams, and forged from their blood, sweat, tears, and personal finances. It’s difficult to step back and take an objective approach when you’ve been growing your business since its infancy because you know you always give it your best intentions. Unfortunately, many business owners unwittingly undermine themselves in some way.
A business coach is often seen as a business counselor, we’re here to identify problems and create positive solutions so you and your business both serve each other well.
If you’re afraid your business will unravel if you step away for a week, if your business finances have a stronghold over you, or if work is eating up your personal life, it’s time to contact a business coach to restore that balance and get back to running your business instead of letting your business run you.
That’s the word for today. I’m Wayne Kurzen, your ActionCOACH. Call me up to get your business systems afloat. It’s the little known secret the business survivors and thrivers are taking to heart.
Keep your eyes out for the ActionCOACH’s next blog: Tips to Increase your Cash Flow.
For more information about me or to connect with me, feel free to respond below or give me a call directly at 678-362-7734.
What are some websites that sell replica JEWELRY in those brands?
I’m starting up a little underground business selling those. I have a couple of websites I’m already planning on ordering from, but it would be nice to know more!
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I am looking for quotes of famous celebrities, athletes or business moguls talking about the legendary basketball coach John Wooden. How he or his teachings have effected them?
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I need a coach who knows how to pitch like has a store or business in coaching and teaching people to help me learn to pitch so please give me ur site or If you know where I can learn then that good too
I’m in Queens and I can go far to learn only If the coach is really good and obvisoulsy it is for Baseball cuiz what other sport hav pitching involved
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Tampa Bay head coach Jon Gruden spoke about the lack of credit his defense gets from press, media and everyone for that matter. He said I dont know why nobody talks about our defense. i dont know why nobody talks about our middle linebacker. But if you’re out there, we have one hell of a defense being here, seeing them play week in week out, i already know this team is stacked and ready for a playoff run. How soon before the rest of the football world realizes the Bucs are here and they mean business
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Did you see that on ESPNews??!
LMAO! It was in an interview with the coach!
He was of course talking about the scheduling controversy…
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I worked at Salad Works for about 2 months, and when the time came for me to get my paycheck, i didn’t get it. Everytime I called or came in they said the manager will be in tomorrow or there was a power outage or your check will be ready tomorrow. I called the Main Office, and had someone tell a business coach about this.. he called back and said he spoke to the manager and the paycheck was ready and if there were anymore problems to let him no. I got my check, it was written as a personal check and was $25 less than it should have been. I know they take out for taxes but is this reasonable? This whoe thing was absolutely ridiculous.. who should I ask or call? How can I found out?
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I want to start a new business. I have listed some steps that I need to take but I am not making as much progress as I want to make. If I network another person who also has his/her own goals and if we motivate each other to take next steps on a daily basis, would that help us to make progress faster? If so, where can I find another ambitious person who is willing to communicate on a daily basis?
Also, is it better to group together with more than one person?
I know, hiring a business coach would be ideal, but I can’t afford one. All my friends are busy and they don’t seem to be interested and I don’t want to force them.
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I have a 20 hour flight to Malaysia (with a brief layover in Beijing) in one week. Any recommendations on how to balance taking sleeping pills, watching movies, reading books, and otherwise keeping sane to make it through such a long flight? I’m flying coach on Malaysia Airlines. Do they have outlet ports to plug in my laptop?
Additionally, I’ve never been to Malaysia before, and reading weather reports only provides so much info. Any recommendations on dress?
Lastly, any other pointers to help me best prepare for this trip?
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I am looking for honest feedback. I am experienced vocational counselor and am thinking of starting a consulting business. The Department of Labor provides some of these things but not as intensive and a lot you have to do yourself. I am thinking of charging $30 for resume development(hardcopies), $15(on line resume), same price for cover letters, $35/hr. for job development(to generate and provide leads in chosen field) and $35/hr for coaching(for interviews, professional presentation, etc.) Are these rates ok or too low? Would you pay those rates? How much would you pay for these services?
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Pardon Me?
Hillary Clinton Takes Cash From Recipients of Husband’s Controversial Pardons
Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., speaks about her health care policy on Sept. 18, 2007. An examination of Clinton’s fundraising donors reveals three donors were pardoned by President Clinton when he was in office. (Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo) By JAKE TAPPER
Nov. 15, 2007
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Share Three recipients of controversial 11th-hour pardons issued by former President Bill Clinton in January 2001 have donated thousands of dollars to the presidential campaign of his wife, Democratic front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., according to campaign finance records examined by ABC News, in what some good government groups said created an appearance of impropriety.
Full Coverage
Candidate Bios, Pictures and Favorite ThingsIt’s not illegal, Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told ABC News. But, of course, it’s inappropriate and she should return the money. It does raise the appearance that this is payback.
One can only hope that she wasn’t yet aware of who made the donations, said Sloan.
We have raised over $65 million from over 200,000 people, said Clinton campaign manager Howard Wolfson, adding sarcastically, I appreciate your bringing the instance of this $5,300 and these three people to our attention.
Pardonees Donate to Clinton
One of the pardonees who has become a donor to Sen. Clinton is David Herdlinger, a former prosecutor in Springdale, Ark., who, according to press accounts at the time of his pardon pleaded guilty in 1986 to mail fraud after taking bribes to reduce or drop charges against defendants charged with drunken driving offenses.
Now a life and business coach in Georgia, Herdlinger was pardoned by President Clinton in January 2001; he donated $1,000 to Sen. Clinton’s presidential campaign in August.
Multimedia
Who’s Your Candidate? Find Your Presidential Match!Insurance agent Alfredo Regalado, who gave Hillary Clinton $2,000, was pardoned by her husband for failing to report the transportation of currency in excess of $10,000 into the United States, according to the Department of Justice.
Allegedly Mishandled Government Secrets
John Deutch is a different case, having served as President Clinton’s CIA director.
Pardoned by President Clinton for charges he had mishandled government secrets — but before the Department of Justice could file the proper paperwork against him –
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