In Australia (as with a lot of the world) our newspapers are either speakers for corporates, so low brow they are not worth reading, or severely lacking in journalistic integrity. In fact, it's fair to say that I have not purchased a news paper in years. I am certain that this situation is contributing to the rise and rise of the humble blogger. The issue becomes, with so many bloggers out there, which ones are worth reading. Which ones have intellectual stimulation balanced with the right amount of humour and entertrainment? Personally, I read a couple of different blogs in my industry. But there is one Australian Made blog I suggest you look at. It is divacultura. The lovely Tanya writes daily and shares her thoughts, observations and photos from her experiences. If you want to keep in touch with the real world, I can highly recommend it.
Here is something a little different. I was feeling a little cold today so thought that I would share it with you. I put together this little video for your enjoyment. It even has a message in it!!
Too many people in this world keep their light hidden. They have thoughts, ideas, dreams, contributions, VALUE that they do not share. Why? Who knows. It could be intimidation, lack of self-worth, shy, being over looked, for whatever reasons, their voice is not heard. You HAVE to speak up. What you have to offer the world is too important to keep to yourself. If you can't speak up, find a way. Write something, do something, paint something, raise your hand, do whatever you need to do to be heard.
I love the John Lennon quote "Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans". That is exactly what happened to me this morning. I had plans all ready to face the day, write the Get More Goer, write some web copy for the new websites, finalise visa details for my China gig (which is very exciting) and many other things on the to do list. Well that all went out the window when I received an email from a colleague saying that it looked like my website was hacked. I don't understand hacking least of all hacking my site, but it was important to get it fixed. Three hours and lots of phone calls later it was. It has also added quite a few things to my to do list. Throughout it all, I knew the important thing was to stay focussed on the job at hand and keep a good attitude about it, maybe even have fun with it (have a look at the replacement website I built above). This is just a typical day in our life. The joy of having a plan is now I can change it and keep moving forward. Maybe the better question is not "What Just Happened?" but "How will I deal with What Just Happened?" So how will you deal with it?
PS Registrations have started rolling in for the Exhibit Like A Pro Intensive on 1 Sept in Melbourne. If you want to learn how to dramatically increase sales by Exhibiting and Sponsorship, register here now.
Who would have thought it? Just one little day late because we had a public holiday and I got several emails wondering where the Get More Goer was. The reason for this is consistency. Typically (and my apologies for my tardiness this week) the Get More Goer hits your inbox every Monday and it has been doing this for almost 5 years. Naturally some people have come to expect it and get distressed when it is not there. The same is true for any business. Consistency is part of the service. You know what will happen, there are no unpleasant surprises. McDonalds is a great example. You know the food will not be of the highest quality and presentation, but it is consistent. So consistent that it is the foundation of its own international economic index. With it being the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, the monarchy is another organisation that has a foundation of consistency, as evidenced in the photo. Years in between photos but the pose is the same. What about you? Are you consistent in what you do? Do you make sure that your colleagues, suppliers and customers get no nasty surprises?
PS Consistency of sales is another thing that is important. Join Danielle Storey and Me on Sat 1st September for the Exhibit Like A Pro intensive. You will learn the secrets to Exhibiting and Sponsorship that will bring you extra sales. More information is here at www.ExhibitLikeAPro.com
Customer service is important but don't forget your service recovery skills either. Research shows that a customer who has a good experience will tell three to five people but a customer who has a bad experience will tell 11 people and now with social media, I suspect it's more. This weekend I was away with our B&B group of seven people. We had booked a large and lovely place in Echuca (see the picture) with additional bungalow. We arranged and paid for it all over the internet before arrival. When we arrived at the agent we found that it was an additional $150 for the bungalow in addition to the $1,000 we had already paid even though this had not be advertised anywhere. I raised this with the booking agent who happened to be the owner. Some of her comments included, "we have never had this problem before", "My team know what they are doing I am sure they would have mentioned it", "I wasn't part of your original conversation so I can't know for sure what was said". At the end of the day, she had a very unhappy customer and she did not care. There are many things that she could have done, at the very least acknowledging the emotive side of the transaction. While she may have got her $150, she won't get any further business or recommendations from the seven of us who were here and she won't get positive comments on her website. So how do you recover?
