The world has been spell-bound by the spectacle and the thrill of competition at the winter Olympics in Vancouver. The world’s best athletes have shown us what it takes to be champions. They haven’t all won medals, but they have all demonstrated courage, skill, strength, intelligence, commitment and humanness.
Some of the competitors have talked about perfection. Speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, the most decorated American Winter Olympic athlete of all time, said he had a “perfect race” in the Torino Olympics when he won the gold medal in the 500 meter race. But that’s a rare occurrence in Olympic competition – and in life. These top competitors have had to deal with adversity on their quest for Olympic medals. Some of that adversity is physical and some is emotional, and they’ve overcome it to succeed.
Lindsey Vonn, the strong American skier, competed with a severely bruised shin, a broken finger, and other minor bruises and injuries after several crashes and hard falls. She was committed to doing her best and earned a gold medal and a bronze medal. Coming into the races, she said, “I can guarantee you that I’m going to do everything I can to be as ready as I can with this injury and still try to ski well.” She didn’t give excuses. She demonstrated courage and skill and showed what a champion she is.
Many other athletes competed with physical injuries and didn’t let that stop them. Then there was the emotional adversity that others endured.
Canada's figure skater Joannie Rochette won the bronze medal in ladies' figure skating four days after her mother died of a heart attack soon after arriving in Vancouver. Joannie overcame her incredible sadness, a maze of mixed emotions and lack of sleep to deliver the performance of a true champion.
During the competition, Julia Mancuso, US Alpine skier, learned of the death of her close friend and renowned freestyle ski racer CR Johnson after an accident in Squaw Valley. Dealing with that emotion, she won two silver medals.
Winning is not just about the physical conditioning and skill in the sport. Of prime importance is the mental and emotional state of the athletes. Being able to clearly focus on their goal while dealing with personal issues is a mark of true champions. It doesn’t’ take away from their humanness, it adds to it.
What we can learn from these outstanding Olympic champions and apply to our own business in order to achieve success is this:
• Find your passion
• Set clear goals
• Focus
• Do what it takes
• Offer no excuses
True champions use adversity and challenges to propel them to success and to make them stand out above the crowd. Be a champion in your own life and your own business and achieve the success you deserve.
Lynn Murphy
www.keyinnovative.com
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Your Customers’ Feedback – Ask For It, Listen To It and Use It to Improve
In an earlier blog, I discussed the latest survey which shows that when people quit doing business with a company, 86% of the time it’s because of poor customer service. As a business owner, manager, or employee, this is something you can control. In order to know how your customers want to be treated so that they come back, you have to know what they’re experiencing when they interact with your employees. Then you have to be sure every employee is trained to deliver extraordinary service each and every moment.
Here are three things you can do to find out what your customers want so your business can survive and thrive in this economy:
1. Look around your place of business. Do people have to wait to get help? Are people on hold on your phones? Do people appear to be frustrated or angry? You may be busy, but you must pay attention to everything that’s going on.
2. Look around the Internet. What are people saying about your business on sites like Twitter and Facebook? Are you losing business because of what people are saying about your company on these social networking sites? Don’t forget that there are millions of people who read these sites every day.
I recently came across postings by @ComcastBonnie on Twitter. She searches Twitter for any mention of Comcast and contacts the people posting those comments to see how she can help. Through Bonnie, Comcast is not in the dark about what people are saying on Twitter. This is an example of how companies are finding proactive ways to provide service to their customers. Every day check these sites to see what is being said about your company and about your competition.
3. Ask your customers for feedback. Let your customers know you welcome and appreciate their feedback. Make it easy for them to tell you - What are you doing well? What could you do better? What do they want? What don’t they want? Then do something with that feedback. Here are examples I’ve seen lately of how companies are asking for feedback, using it to improve, then letting their customers – and the world – know what they’ve done.
Domino’s Pizza has ads on television showing clips from focus groups where they asked people what they thought of Domino’s pizza. The ads go on to show Domino’s employees arriving with pizzas at the homes of the people who had been critical. Domino’s had made the improvements suggested and brought new and improved pizzas to ask how they’d done. This is a brilliant example of companies asking for and listening to their customers’ feedback. They let their customers know they had listened and that they did something with the feedback.
Microsoft is running ads for the new Windows 7 including customers who contacted Microsoft with suggestions for improving their operating system. In the ads, the customers themselves are saying that Microsoft listened to their suggestions. These customers are taking ownership in the new operating system.
Make your customers feel valued by listening to their comments, and then letting them know what you did with their feedback. They might turn out to be customers for life. Wouldn’t you feel special if you were treated that way? That’s extraordinary customer service. It’s what helps those companies outpace their competition.
Customer service skills can be taught. In this economy, the companies that are going to survive and thrive are the ones that train their people to deliver extraordinary customer service each and every moment.
www.keyinnovative.com
Here are three things you can do to find out what your customers want so your business can survive and thrive in this economy:
1. Look around your place of business. Do people have to wait to get help? Are people on hold on your phones? Do people appear to be frustrated or angry? You may be busy, but you must pay attention to everything that’s going on.
2. Look around the Internet. What are people saying about your business on sites like Twitter and Facebook? Are you losing business because of what people are saying about your company on these social networking sites? Don’t forget that there are millions of people who read these sites every day.
I recently came across postings by @ComcastBonnie on Twitter. She searches Twitter for any mention of Comcast and contacts the people posting those comments to see how she can help. Through Bonnie, Comcast is not in the dark about what people are saying on Twitter. This is an example of how companies are finding proactive ways to provide service to their customers. Every day check these sites to see what is being said about your company and about your competition.
3. Ask your customers for feedback. Let your customers know you welcome and appreciate their feedback. Make it easy for them to tell you - What are you doing well? What could you do better? What do they want? What don’t they want? Then do something with that feedback. Here are examples I’ve seen lately of how companies are asking for feedback, using it to improve, then letting their customers – and the world – know what they’ve done.
Domino’s Pizza has ads on television showing clips from focus groups where they asked people what they thought of Domino’s pizza. The ads go on to show Domino’s employees arriving with pizzas at the homes of the people who had been critical. Domino’s had made the improvements suggested and brought new and improved pizzas to ask how they’d done. This is a brilliant example of companies asking for and listening to their customers’ feedback. They let their customers know they had listened and that they did something with the feedback.
Microsoft is running ads for the new Windows 7 including customers who contacted Microsoft with suggestions for improving their operating system. In the ads, the customers themselves are saying that Microsoft listened to their suggestions. These customers are taking ownership in the new operating system.
Make your customers feel valued by listening to their comments, and then letting them know what you did with their feedback. They might turn out to be customers for life. Wouldn’t you feel special if you were treated that way? That’s extraordinary customer service. It’s what helps those companies outpace their competition.
Customer service skills can be taught. In this economy, the companies that are going to survive and thrive are the ones that train their people to deliver extraordinary customer service each and every moment.
www.keyinnovative.com
Friday, February 12, 2010
Extraordinary Customer Service Helps Businesses and Employees Survive Economic Downturn
Whether you have your own business or work for someone else, the key to surviving and thriving in this slow economic climate is providing excellent customer service.
In order to be successful in business you must keep customers coming back. You must to have a product or service your customers want, but your competition has that. How do you set yourself apart from your competition? The key to surviving and thriving in the economic downturn is providing service, service, service. You must deliver extraordinary customer service and make your customers feel valued so they keep coming back and tell others about your company.
The numbers show us how important it is to hang on to your existing customers. It costs businesses six times more to attract new customers than to keep the old ones. Customer loyalty is worth ten times the price of a single purchase. It makes economic sense to cultivate the loyalty of your customers.
Why do businesses fail to create loyal customers? Why do customers leave companies? You may think that it’s primarily because they’ve found a better product or price somewhere else. But it’s not. If you’re focusing your business on only those two things, you are probably losing business and may not even realize why.
The newest Customer Experience Impact Report by RightNow® Technologies and Harris Interactive released in October 2009 shows that 86% of the time when people quit doing business with a company it’s because of a bad customer service experience. That’s a huge number! Eighty-six percent of the people who leave feel they were treated rudely or with indifference by an employee, manager or owner. Most never go back to that business. That’s a number that you can do something about.
Customers not only have high expectations for service, they’re demanding it every time they interact with an organization whether in person, on the phone or on your website. If you want to succeed in business, as an owner or as an employee, you have to focus on treating your customers the way they want to be treated – with extraordinary customer service.
You can take steps to make sure you and your employees put your customer first. One of the steps is to train your employees how to deliver extraordinary customer service every time. The good news is that customer service skills are trainable. Look for my upcoming blog on effectively training employees in customer service.
In this economy, the companies that are going to survive and thrive are the ones that deliver excellent customer service. Make your company one of them.
www.keyinnovative.com
In order to be successful in business you must keep customers coming back. You must to have a product or service your customers want, but your competition has that. How do you set yourself apart from your competition? The key to surviving and thriving in the economic downturn is providing service, service, service. You must deliver extraordinary customer service and make your customers feel valued so they keep coming back and tell others about your company.
The numbers show us how important it is to hang on to your existing customers. It costs businesses six times more to attract new customers than to keep the old ones. Customer loyalty is worth ten times the price of a single purchase. It makes economic sense to cultivate the loyalty of your customers.
Why do businesses fail to create loyal customers? Why do customers leave companies? You may think that it’s primarily because they’ve found a better product or price somewhere else. But it’s not. If you’re focusing your business on only those two things, you are probably losing business and may not even realize why.
The newest Customer Experience Impact Report by RightNow® Technologies and Harris Interactive released in October 2009 shows that 86% of the time when people quit doing business with a company it’s because of a bad customer service experience. That’s a huge number! Eighty-six percent of the people who leave feel they were treated rudely or with indifference by an employee, manager or owner. Most never go back to that business. That’s a number that you can do something about.
Customers not only have high expectations for service, they’re demanding it every time they interact with an organization whether in person, on the phone or on your website. If you want to succeed in business, as an owner or as an employee, you have to focus on treating your customers the way they want to be treated – with extraordinary customer service.
You can take steps to make sure you and your employees put your customer first. One of the steps is to train your employees how to deliver extraordinary customer service every time. The good news is that customer service skills are trainable. Look for my upcoming blog on effectively training employees in customer service.
In this economy, the companies that are going to survive and thrive are the ones that deliver excellent customer service. Make your company one of them.
www.keyinnovative.com
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