I am currently writting a course for our church for business people or people who are wanting to enter into business. For the lack of a better name at the moment, I am just referring to this as the "Christian Business School".
This is the overview of what I think we will look at. By all means let me know your ideas. I will post more as it develops.
Such is the marvel of modern technology that I am writing this post from the 4th floor of John Lewis in Liverpool.
I have just purchased my wife’s Christmas gift (which is in itself quite an achievement!) and I thought that I would take advantage of the gift wrap service that they offer (a great invention for someone like me!).
On the wall here on the 4th floor, are some great pointers about some of the personal services that John Lewis offer – such as an appointment with one of their trained fashion advisors. A great service but to be honest – the 4th floor is not the place to advertise this. The personal touch is incredibly important and something that the internet is trying hard to implement.
That aside, I am sat here waiting for my gift to be wrapped. I was greeted professionally and with courtesy. I was asked who the gift was for and the lady offered me some helpful advice. We chose the paper and ribbon, and off she went to wrap it. I sat down to wait.
A young lady walked in a minute or so later and she was greeted by another member of the team. She obviously wanted to have some gifts wrapped and was subsequently told that there was a 45 minute wait as they had a lot of gifts to wrap at the moment.
What had changed in the few minutes that I was there? I didn’t see an surge in gifts wanting to be wrapped. We were just treated by two very different people. Both were friendly and pleasant – one just got on and did the job, the other put it off.
Of course, there can be reasons for this – but what I saw as a customer was conflicting messages. I didn’t know whether to feel sorry for the customer who came moments after me or whether I should feel privileged to be treated with such a special service.
As I sat here and ponder the situation – I am left with one conclusion — keep the customer experience the same for all customers and make sure that the staff all tell the same message.
Everynow and then, we need a reality check, in business and in life. Humour can be a great way to give us this:
Recently, I was persuaded to start keeping a journal. This is something that I didn’t really want to do if I was honest but I did it because I said that I would to a friend.
"Just write anything and everything" was the advice. It is not a diary, but a tool for you to help process thoughts, feelings and ideas. It is not a record of everything that you have done wrong. It is just a blank piece of paper.
So I made a decision to keep a journal. To write in it, daily. I have done this now for a few weeks. And do you know what – I am a convert. I actually enjoy doing this and I have found there are a few benefits that I wasn’t expecting:
Granted, I am still new to the world of journalling. But for now, I am a convert. I can strongly recommend that you start keeping a journal if you don’t already.
If you want to give it a go, and need a journal – visit my site (I know this is a shameless plug – but these are great journals): http://www.jerseygiftcompany.co.uk/products/18/timu-leather-journal.html
When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him
in the crowd and touched His garment.
She came behind him… why? Why not to His face like Jairus did? As I mentioned to you before, under Levitical law, this woman could have been killed for coming out. She didn’t want Jesus to see her for fear of her life.
Isn’t that interesting?
This woman, at this point in her life has enough faith to believe that Jesus will heal her. But notice the method she is believing for. She will sneak up behind, touch his clothes and sneak off again without anyone knowing. Why would she come up with such a plan as this?
I am currently on hold waiting to talk to the second complaints department at my mortgage company. It seems this company is so large that each department has it’s own complaints department – so me, the person they don’t really want to talk to on the other end of the line has to get the right complaints department before I can air my greivances.
The people are pleasant enough on the phone but I find it odd that they call it a “complaints” department. Surely you would want to call it something a little less negative. I want to disucss something – not necessarily complain. But since I have been told I am being put through to the complaints department – my attitude has changed. I now want to complain. This was not my intention originally – but it is now.
I feel that I have to get ready for war, to be clever and out smart the person that is about to pick up my call – all because of their naming of a department.
I guess there are two points here. 1. Don’t have a specific complaints department – it annoys the people that are calling. Empower all staff to deal with customer issues. 2. If you have to have a department – don’t call it a complaints department. Call it a resolution department or customer care.