Make sure the results are believable

If employees have seen the results collected, know how they are compiled and have evidence that it was their customers who gave the information, they are more likely to act on it. If the information comes down from management, represents random sampling and anonymity, employees tend to discount it.

Make sure the results are used

Customer-satisfaction results should be discussed with the staff. If a celebration is held following excellent results, staff begin to see the data as important. Some companies hold a braai to which all staff members are invited. Merely posting numbers or sending out a memo about complaints does not work.

Give special awards to those employees who go beyond the call of duty

The ‘Champions’ award, for example, is given to employees of one of our clients for notable and often quite dramatic achievements. The award is a result of customers’ comments. Managers forward these comments and letters to a review committee who decide upon those deserving of the special award. There is no limit to the number of employees who can win ‘Champion’ awards although five seems to be the average. Winners receive gold cuff links and a weekend away with their spouses at the Wild Coast Sun.

These awards are also made to those staff members who help their colleagues. This acts as a form of feedback for employees who have gone that extra mile to help their colleagues.

Managers are given authority to award ‘Champion’ stickers and cash awards of varying amounts to their employees — $200 or a dinner out on the town, for example.

The result is a loyal, well-trained, highly motivated workforce, paid better-than-average salaries and constantly rewarded for meeting and exceeding the company’s pacesetting service standards.

Information and reward

Employees need information to know how they are doing and to make sure they are doing what is expected of them. Let us consider the three distinctive aspects of information. Firstly, staff must clearly understand the objectives they are supposed to achieve. Working without objectives is like running a long-distance race without being told where the finish line is. Staff need to know the amount and quality of work to be accomplished.

Second, information is needed to confirm or correct the quality and quantity of work. Finally, information on how to perform each job in the organisation is needed. Staff need training in the knowledge and skills necessary to perform each task.

Reward is critical to a service improvement programme. Money, as would be expected, is an important and often overlooked part of the reward system of working for a living. But there are rewards beyond money which are also important.

Psychological gratification, ranging from happiness over a job well done to recognition by others that one is performing well, is a form of reward.

Follow-through

Follow-through signifies management’s commitment to make service excellence not simply a programme, but a way of doing business.

Motivational programmes can stimulate people and gain commitment and effort toward a specific improvement goal. But this is only temporary, and there is a tendency for employees to return to their earlier work standards once the motivation has worn off.

Our experience has shown that no service programme can work without the continuous commitment of management.

STAFF COMMITMENT

Once management has committed itself to a service programme it is necessary to obtain the commitment of all staff members.

Begin with your service strategy

If it’s well designed, you will find a number of measurable premises in it. A company with a ‘zero-defect forty-eight hour turnaround on all orders’ has a strategy that is eminently measurable.

The service strategy should also suggest some less obvious measurements. For example, a company strategy should suggest certain internal measurements, such as ‘where does the service-delivery programme break down?’

Measure your service frequently

In many businesses, particularly restaurants, once a month is a minimum but obviously this type of feedback depends very much upon the type of industry and whether an external or internal customer is under consideration.

Ask customer-based questions

Tap both the customer’s experience (’What happened to you?’) and the customer’s perception (’How do you feel about what happened to you?’). The customer’s specific personal experience and interpretations are far more enlightening than open-ended general questions such as ‘On the whole, how was your stay?’ or ‘How did you feel about our product?’

Ask fair questions

Ask questions which can yield information the staff themselves can act upon. Concentrate on people-regulated processes, not machine-regulated systems that people are powerless to change.

Collect group and individual data

Look for data that can be helpful to individual performers as well as to working groups. The people responsible for the cleanliness of the rooms in a hotel need to know specifically how the guest felt about the cleanliness, as well as the general view of the hotel service.

Watch the competition

You should also try, where possible, to collect information on the sales, market share and levels of customer satisfaction of your competitors, at least twice a year. A well-known retail chain sends its managers out into the malls to ask how customers feel not only about their own stores, but about the competition’s stores.

Collect both quantitative and qualitative data. The measurement system should collect numerical ratings as well as customer comments. Both need to be analysed and discussed and specific comments should explain the numbers. Both kinds of information are useful.

Make the results visible

Displaying the results emphasises their importance. It destroys the notion that customer ratings are something held in confidence and not discussed with the frontline, that is, those employees who deal directly with customers. Frontline results should be posted where frontline people can see them.

Make sure the results are employee-friendly

Simple straight-forward averages and ratios work better than artificially compiled and weighted index scores. People are more likely to understand that ‘87 % of customers rated frontline employees cheerful and helpful’.

• Be enthusiastic! The word ‘enthusiasm’ is said to have its origins in early Greek and means ‘God within’, suggesting that enthusiasm shines from and through you.
• Arrive early at all functions and set a clear goal of what you want to achieve.
• Pretend that every function you attend is your own function and that you are the host, so make a point of making everyone feel welcome.
• Talk! If you don’t speak, you don’t exist. If you are the shy type, look for like-minded people and introduce yourself.
• Learn to introduce yourself quickly, professionally and clearly - and with a little humour if the occasion calls for it.
• Be yourself - people will relate to the real you. . Take a genuine interest in others, and allow them an opportunity to speak.
• Don’t just collect business cards and brochures and store them in a box - call the people you meet, invite them out and build strong relationships.
• Try to sit with people you have not met before.
• Make sure your breath is fresh and your fingernails are clean. For that matter, check your toenails too! You just never know …
• Prepare at least four snippets of information on your business so that you can share them with those you meet.
• If you have a product, ask the host or hostess if you may display it. Arrange beforehand to display posters, banners or any other forms of promotional material too. It’s all about making yourself as visible as possible.
• Print business cards and brochures that explain what you do, but make sure that they are clear, well presented and professional.
• Offer the organiser a voucher as a promotional give-away as this will offer you excellent exposure to the entire group. If you sell a product, give the product as a prize, and if you’re a consultant, offer a free consultation.
• Learn to read other people’s needs. But there is only one way to do that: and that is to listen — and listen properly!

What do successful networkers have in common?

• They add value to someone’s life.
• They encourage rather than advise.
• They take a genuine interest in what other people do, and show it.
• They attend meetings regularly.
• They follow up on leads and referrals.
• They believe in the value of learning.
• They don’t believe in failure.
• They don’t fear critics.
• They come prepared.
• They know where they are going and how they will get there.
• They radiate energy because they know that what you radiate is what you attract.

…without your business cards! They are an indispensable marketing tool. Make them really stylish. They’re very often the first impression people will get of you, and you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Full colour cards are not that expensive to print anymore. Shop around for a good price. Keep a supply of business cards with you all the time and hand them out often. Include a photograph or sketch of your work if you can.

Perhaps, as an alternative, you can combine your business card information with a mini pamphlet or brochure, which you can leave at shops or pop into the packet with your customer’s purchase.

Promoting yourself, your skill or your product

Firstly, the most important ingredient in successful marketing is attitude. Have faith in your product and believe in what you do - passionately.

If you’re a positive and enthusiastic person, you can’t help but attract customers and business to you. And it all builds on itself. People perceive you as successful, and almost unconsciously feel that if everyone else is working with you or buying from you, then they must too.

Secondly, you must be seen and you must become known. A successful business is visible, and if you can create such a profile for your business, you will certainly thrive in the craft industry.

You have to make it easy for people to find you. There’s a lot of competition out there. If they can’t find you, they’ll go somewhere else.

Also, it’s worth remembering that the people out there don’t need you nearly as much as you need them!

You can do it

Creative people often find it really hard to promote themselves. Most of us have grown up in a ‘you must not brag and it’s rude to show off!’ environment, and as a result we tend to be quite shy and inhibited about pushing ourselves and our talents and skills.

You have to realise that this is not bragging and it’s not showing off. This is being proud of what you do, believing in yourself, being confident of your ability - and putting yourself out there.

When you’re starting out, you often don’t feel very confident. In fact you’re more likely to feel very nervous and terribly unsure of yourself. Peter Heilblom, in his Alpha mind training programme, uses the slogan ‘Fake it till you make it!’. In other words, even though you might be ‘dying’ of embarrassment, shyness and insecurity, pretend to be confident and sure of yourself.

It’s actually not that hard to do and the more you do it, the easier it becomes …. until one day you find that you really ARE confident. Then you’re on your way! An effective method of doing it is to simply focus all your attention on the other person. This takes your attention away from yourself which is really what being self-conscious is all about, anyway.

It also helps to remember that absolutely everyone, even the most successful of people, started out nervous and unsure —just ask around.

There are many gardening experts, but for more than two decades, one has stood out head and shoulders above the rest — Keith Kirsten. He has become a household name, both as a gardening authority and a much sought after celebrity. What is it that made him different? There were horticulturists as good and possibly even better than he was — but he’s the one who became Mr. Gardening.

Why?

Very good marketing!

When he started out he was seen absolutely everywhere. He presented gardening programmes on national television, he appeared regularly on radio, he wrote articles for magazines, he made guest appearances at gardening expo’s and in shopping centres — he was just everywhere.

Now you don’t necessarily need to go quite as public as Keith Kirsten, but if you want to succeed you have to put yourself and your craft out there and you have to get noticed.

And when you start doing it you’ll be delighted at the difference it makes to your business.

The four essentials

• Courage — to take risks
• Effort - the more you put into it, the more you are guaranteed to get out
• Energy + Enthusiasm = a dynamic and unstoppable mix
• Perseverance — along the way you’re going to have to deal with rejection in any number of ways. But if you’ve set your goals and you know where you’re going, you will just cross the disappointment off your list and move on.

Where to start?

There are lots of ways of marketing yourself. From getting publicity that costs very little and sometimes even nothing at all, to full-on professional advertising which is probably the most costly publicity of all.

When you become involved in the craft industry — whether you’re selling finished articles, supplying raw materials to crafters or teaching a craft (to name just a few) you enter a exciting, vibrant and creative new world.

You will be amazed at the opportunities for promoting your business that present themselves all the time. You just have to keep your eyes and ears open. Be alert! Sometimes the opportunities are hidden, and occasionally you also need to do some lateral thinking to unearth them.

And because you’ve set your goals and researched your customers, you’ll be in a position to home in on the opportunities that are perfect for your target market and that will give you the best returns.

On the other hand, sometimes it’s fun to take up an opportunity that at first might appear to be way off the mark. No experience is ever wasted, and you never know where it might lead.

If you just want your hobby to pay for itself, then you won’t need to do very much more than sell from an eye catching stall at a craft market. But if you want a more vibrant business that will support you, then you have to do some serious marketing.

to be continued

The two ways are, the promoting you do yourself, and the promoting other people do for you by word of mouth.

• If you are selling finished articles, your best vehicle for advertising is your merchandise - how you package and present it and then how you display it.
• If you are short on ideas, or not sure how to display your work, go to art galleries, look through art books and display books in book shops, look at the latest magazines, particularly interior design magazines and of course explore other shops - especially in up-market areas and shopping centres. They are most likely to be right up there with the latest fashions. Inspiration is all around you - all you need to do is to open yourself up to it.

• If you’re starting to teach head for the shops that stock your raw materials, be they art, craft, needlework, paint, fabric or haberdashery supply shops. (Public libraries are also quite good.) Ask if you can put up a poster or leave business cards. Most of these shops have a notice board for exactly this purpose. As a customer, I have often found exactly the service I was needing in this way.

Pop in regularly to check whether you need to replenish your supply of business cards, or to see that your poster still looks good. Take responsibility for your own business. Don’t expect or hope that someone else will do it for you. Nurture it.

Your posters should be no bigger than an A4, in fact A5 would probably be better. You can design the poster yourself using a computer or letraset. Have them laminated, because then they’ll last longer. Most shops that do photocopying will do laminating as well.

Avoid hand written posters - unless you can do calligraphy - they always look horribly home made.

It’s important to create a professional impression. A great deal of marketing is in the hidden messages that you’re putting out all the time, which determine how your business is perceived by others. Treat your business with care and people will take you seriously.

Offer to give demonstrations at these supply shops, or shops complementary to your craft. For example, if you paint porcelain, ask gift shops, or florists or plant nurseries if you can set up a painting demonstration outside their shops. For this, you’ll need a couple of tables: one for working on and one for displaying your work. The important thing is to create awareness of what you do and how you do it.

From awareness comes interest and then involvement. Capture someone’s imagination and you have a customer for a long, long time.

Ask shopping centres for their year’s programme of promotional events. Possibly you could link in with one of them.

Offer to give free demonstrations for your church or for community clubs like Rotary or Lions.

“You must be reliable. The agent and shop owner are working on trust. Don’t let them down. So you must be geared up for producing quantities.

“Your product must be well made and look professional. In a shop it will be competing with factory-produced merchandise.

“Packaging and presentation are extremely important.

“Always include a profit margin for growth. If your business grows - and it should - you will need to take on extra staff.

“Remember too, that at some point your business is probably going to outgrow your backroom, you will need bigger premises.

“Listen to what your product is saying to you in terms of where to sell it.

“Your products must earn their rent on the shelf.

“You can’t always put out what you want to. Sometimes you have to bow to the wishes of your market.”

Extra Selling Opportunities

Art and Theatre Festivals

These are held throughout the year all over the country. Many of the festivals have a craft market attached to them. Contact the organisers for market criteria and to book your space. They are great fun to do and you will be exposing your products to a market quite unlike your normal markets.

Seasonal Markets including school and charity fêtes or church bazaars

Christmas, Spring and Easter are the most popular times for these.

Many big markets put in extra seasonal markets. Keep in touch with them.

Look out for posters advertising these. They go out well in advance of the market, which gives you lots of time to get a table.

The last word on the subject

Take your time deciding where and how you want to sell. Research all your options. Talk to craft market organisers, chat to shop owners and befriend other crafters — it is a surprisingly supportive industry.

Ultimately this journey of yours should be fun. Follow your passion and enjoy the adventure.

When you sign up with an agent, define the areas they will be working. This avoids problems occurring as your business expands.

Advantages

• The agent does the leg work, leaving you free to manufacture. They have built up a wide range of retail outlet contacts which you might never achieve on your own.
• You don’t have to do any face to face selling. This allows you to concentrate on manufacturing.
• If you build up a good relationship with your agent, they can help you develop and expand your range in unexpected ways. Because they are ‘out there’ they can frequently anticipate trends and changes ahead of the pack.

Disadvantages

• Your profit margin is lower therefore you have to produce more in order to make your money.
• You have added a ‘middle man’ which you must accommodate in your price structuring.
• You must be committed to supplying goods on a regular basis. Your agent is selling in advance of production. You must deliver the goods the shops have ordered.

Choosing an Agent

When you’ve found an agent, or been contacted by one, ask for references. It helps to know what the agent’s sales experience is.

Ask how many clients he/she are representing. If you are one of many, your product might have to compete with his/her other - more established - ranges.

Establish, at the start, the commission that will need to be paid. It varies between 10 — 15% of the wholesale price - the price the shop pays. Re-check your pricing after you have negotiated this commission to make sure you will still be making enough of a profit. Some agents will ask for an exclusive agreement. This means you will not use another agent to sell your products in a particular area.

Review the progress of sales at regular intervals. Although your agent is doing the selling, you are ultimately responsible for your own business.

Build up a relationship with your agent. An agent can often give you very valuable advice.

to be continued

Convert what you love doing into a profession.

• Ask yourself what job you would most like to do if you were a member of the crew on a luxury liner for 90 days.
• Your qualities tell you a lot about yourself.
• The biggest clue is to think about what you truly love doing.

Your greatest asset

If you’re feeling a little insecure, allow me to introduce you to a few qualities you have perhaps overlooked. You may be surprised to discover that your mind can be trained to gear itself towards success.

• You have enough energy in your body to build or destroy a city.
• Unless all you do is spit and gurgle, your mouth allows you to tell people who you are and what you want. It can inspire, uplift and eradicate fear. You can smile. And, with instruction, you can build a city.
• Your ears allow you to listen to what people need.
• You have hundreds of muscles that help keep you upright.

You can breathe. Many people survive on life- support systems, so if you’ve been blessed with the gift of life, use it.

You have legs to walk, so find direction and then move along.

• You have reason. Life is beautiful, life is a paradise - enjoy every moment.

Finders keepers

If business does not come your way, you need to create it! A friend who publishes books was experiencing a quiet spell, so she approached a fresh produce chain (which has 56 outlets) and offered to compile an exclusive fruit-and-vegetable recipe book under the company name. They agreed, and the book is now in its sixth edition. To date, the fruit-andvegetable company remains one of her best clients.

If you’re in promotions or marketing, approach a large company or franchise outlet and suggest a dynamic promotion for them. Then get a local radio station and newspaper involved. If you’re successful, they are sure to call you on board for many more projects. Whatever your field, think about who would benefit and propose ideas to them - in many instances, people are simply too busy to spend time thinking of new projects themselves. Occasionally, make an appointment to take a walk in nature to clear your mind. I guarantee it’ll be one of your most lucrative appointments.

The only factors standing between you and starting your business are fear and excuses. I feel very strongly about this. We can only succeed if we are able to successfully rid ourselves of our fear and the action that it holds back. Once that’s done, you will already feel lighter - and be prepared to take the risks that success requires.

I often hear people saying, ‘I don’t know how that idiot makes money.’ Well, I’ll tell you - while you’ve been replaying your idea a million times in your head that ‘idiot’ has already started!

Pursuing passion

Some people are driven by their passion. They are so excited about what they do that they go to sleep thinking about what they do and can’t wait to wake up and continue their mission. But what else do successful people have in common? Let’s take a look at some of the attributes that serve to encourage success and prosperity.

• They have big mouths, and aren’t prepared to play second fiddle.
• The have both knowledge and sound selling skills, and know their product well.
• They have mounds of energy and drive and, as a result, the will to succeed.
• They make themselves visible at every opportunity.
• They don’t feel guilty about what they do and the time they spend doing it.
• They are focused.
• They are fearless.
• They are excellent communicators.
• They have a burning desire to be financially independent.
• They steer their energy effectively.
• They exercise and eat well. What they eat energises them. (Some companies in Japan have a running track on the roof of their building and insist that all staff work out at lunch time.)
• They think big!