I hope you have enjoyed reading this newsletter, and that perhaps it has raised some issues that you previously hadn’t considered, or perhaps has acted to remind you of something that you have previously had to put on the back burner due to other commitments. Customer Service and Employee Engagement are vital business processes. The top businesses in their sectors all share one thing in common they have clearly defined strategies around both of these vital processes.

Improving service is the number one thing you can do to get new customers, get more business out of your existing customers, charge more for your products and services. In today’s competitive world, with everybody being so close on price, quality and products service is the number one way to get ahead of your competitors offering an excellent return on investment and fully measurable.

All the newsletter articles have been published on our website, for you to read, and if you so wish to provide feedback or questions relating to them.

If you would like to discuss any of the information, or articles in this newsletter (or even producing a newsletter for your customers) then please feel free to contact us using any of the details below. As the old saying goes, its good to talk and remember to check our website regularly for interesting articles and other interesting service related updates.

Email: Enquiries@servicesandpeople.com

           ChrisSummers@servicesandpeople.com

Telephone: 01476 403975

You can also find us on facebook, andtwitter.

Perhaps you’ve started to, or are thinking of using Social Media to promote your business. That’s fantastic news you have started to connect with the majority of the UK population who previously may not have heard of you.

Although in its infancy social media reaches out to millions of people in the UK, and around the world, getting in now will give you a head-start on your competitors as most companies are not actively engaged with this vital tool for reaching out to your customer base and more importantly potential new customers.

Social media is no longer the reserve of the young technically aware teenager they have all grown up, and and now expect service via internet related services. It’s now the number one place where potential customers look when wanting products, services or information.

There are a number of interesting points that you may not be aware of:

50% of SME owners who use social media report gaining new customers directly as a result.

51% of Facebook users and 64% of Twitter users are more likely to buy from the brands they follow.

Approximately 40% of social media users access their accounts through mobile devices.

Nearly twenty three percent of online time is spend on Social Media sites.

It doesn’t take much time to find many more arguments for using social media to grow your business no matter your products, services or sector. In 2011 a Forrester backed study showed that 76% of marketing professionals surveyed agreed that social media is important for brand building with 72% agreeing that its important for customer loyalty.

But its no good setting up a Facebook account, or Twitter feed and occasionally posting content when you remember to be effective you need to have a clear and defined social media strategy.

How are you going to collect the content for your social media?

How are you going to check the sensitivity of the content you will post?

How are you going to schedule this information so it is being posted during peak periods?

How are you going to monitor your sites for service and product feedback?

What is the geographic location of your followers, what marketing opportunities does this give you?

How are you going to engage with followers, sharing, or re-tweets? How do you welcome new followers?

The above are an example, but just as important from a cost perspective how are you going to track revenue generated from your social media offerings so that you know it is cost effective?

This article was taken from our March 2012 Newsletter.

Day to day business takes all your time, so its no surprise that many managers and business owners admit they have very little time left over to sit back and think about their employee engagement strategies. Instead only engaging with employees when a “situation” arises, or somebody who is seen as a “key” member of the team leaves you for a competitor.

The truth is that employee engagement is one of the most important aspects of running a successful business, happy employees drive both growth and profitability, whilst disengaged or unhappy staff will actually cause damage to your reputation by either moaning about your business on Social Media, bad mouthing you to potential customers, and dissuading potentially talented personnel from joining your organisation.

One of the key aspects of an effective employee engagement strategy is consistent working practices and environment so employees know what to expect when they come to work, and what their duties and responsibilities are. At the very least therefore your employees should have access to the following, no matter the size of your company.

A contract of employment outlining normal duties, responsibilities, and key business processes and expectations.

Access to an up to date company handbook, showing key company wide practices, such as:

a. Holiday booking process
b. Disciplinary process
c. Health & Safety considerations

d. Company car usage
e. Expenses policy
f. Sickness reporting procedures
etc.

The above two points are fairly obvious, and certainly you must provide your employees with a contract of employment. There are many characteristics that successful businesses share when it comes to employee engagement, some of which are listed below for consideration.

Rolling training programs in relation to products and services.

Annual appraisal schemes

Staff social events.

Encourage employee feedback.

Cultivation of a blame free culture.

Allowing “stars” to shine.

Encouraging & engaging with employee initiatives.

Taking an interest in an employees future and helping them achieve.

This article was taken from our March 2012 Newsletter.

Do you give and receive great customer service?

Some interesting feedback from a Services & People Survey that we ran through March in relation to the level of service you receive and the level of service you give. The survey had two simple questions marked between one and ten with ten being the highest score.

1. As a customer, overall what level of service do you feel you receive from your suppliers or providers of other services?

2. As a Supplier or provider of other services, overall what level of service do you feel you give to your customers?

Across a number of respondents both marks should come out relatively close. In effect of course this didn’t happen, as we all like to think we give a better service than we receive and that our service is better than anyone else’s. Its a natural thing to do, and difficult for even the most hardened manager or owner to step back and be that objective about their own offerings. But in reality stepping back and being self critical is something that we need to do to improve the level of service we provide.

Out of interest the results were as follows, for the level of service we provided we gave ourselves on average 84%, whereas the level of service we received was only 62%. Its definitely something to think about, and the old saying that perception is King, is certainly true when it comes to delivering service and products to your customers and improving your market perception.

This article was taken from our March 2012 Newsletter.

Promoting internally is one of the keys to cultivating a positive and well motivated work force, but care does need to be taken to ensure that it is the best thing for the employee and the business in general. Often employees can fall into positions that they are unsuitable for, resulting in an unhappy member of staff and a vital position within a business not fulfilling its intended purpose. This often leads to the loss of a valuable member of staff or a company not reaching its potential.

This can be a risk for firms that have grown organically over a number of years from a small organisation to a larger company. The adage that your best salesman does not make your best sales manager holds true throughout the varied operational areas of any business.

Before filling any new or vacant positions, try asking yourself some of the questions below to aid you in making the right decision.

If this is a new role, have you clearly outlined your requirements and expectations for the role?

Does your internal candidate have the skills? Remembering the salesman adage, management positions need management skills.

What training will be required to fill any skill gaps?

Are you going to have a formal interview process?

How are you going to announce the promotion  internally?

How are you going to monitor the successful candidates
performance?

What are the reporting requirements of the role?

Is the internal candidate already in a key role that is operating well? This shouldn’t be an obstacle but you will
need to plan around this.

How do others within your business feel about your internal candidate?

Should you also consider external candidates?

Should you invite other internal candidates? Would this have the benefit of appearing more transparent?

Should you seek outside assistance to cultivate an open and fair process?

As you can see, there are a number of important questions to think about, but as is always the case you should look at filling any vacant or new roles within your company with the best person available. Whether or not the successful candidate is internal or external.

This article was taken from our March 2012 Newsletter.

More than ever before visitors to our websites are wanting a much more dynamic socially driven experience, as you will see from the Social Media article in this newsletter. We have therefore changed the whole concept of our main website in favour of a much more interactive offering giving you all the ability to comment and reflect upon our articles and services.

The website remains at the same address www.ServicesAndPeople.com and it has immediately given us the key benefit of being able to keep all our visitors and subscribers up to date with the latest articles and developments from Services and People, even when we are on the move.

If you are thinking of redesigning or modifying your website in the future, it may be an approach that you want to consider, rather than pushing your clients towards a forum buried behind other content. Engagement with your customer base is a key attribute of a successful growing business and a flexible web offering pays a key part in that engagement. So why not pop along and leave a comment about this newsletter, the new site in general or any of the other articles that we have published.

This article was taken from our March 2012 Newsletter.