Tag: business models

Customer Service Secrets

Customer Service Secrets

Posted on by Doogie Levine
Attract client to post about customer service

Shhh... I Have a Secret

You can create a great customer service system for your business in 3 easy steps.

Customer service is a pretty hot topic and can make or break your business. Consumers have little patience for lousy customer service and quickly get tired of waiting in long lines, trying to get a live person on the line, going through an interrogation to return something, or trying to communicate through a language barrier. 

If you provide them with a simple, efficient, pleasant experience, they will revisit your business over and over. More importantly, your clients will tell everyone they know! 

There are three secrets to good customer service; the first one we’re going to conquer is knowing exactly what YOU want.

You are the captain of the ship and the visionary for your business’s future, so you need to have a clearly defined plan for your business, including customer service. There are three main goals you need to consider:

  • Understand Your Road Blocks
    • It needs to be easy for your customers to do business with you. You can do this with advertised discounts, kiosks, your website, and other technology-based programs to help them shop. No matter what medium you chose, make sure you understand all of the steps your asking your client to do. Then make sure you can make them as easy as possible.

 

  • Your Experience Needs to be Like Talking with Mom
    • Doing business with you needs to be a warm and pleasant experience. Your staff has to be knowledgeable, approachable, warm, and patient. Your customers need to feel like they are getting good value for their time and money. Perceived value goes beyond the price of the products and extends to their shopping experience.

 

  • A Penny Wise a Dollar Foolish
    • Change your mindset and ask yourself, “How can I NOT afford to do these things?” This shouldn’t be a question of expenses, but making and keep happy customers. It is always essential to think about customer lifetime value when dealing with complaints, refunds, replacements, etc. Think a penny today is a dollar tomorrow.

With these thoughts in mind, you also need to consider a few things when deciding on the actual programs and standards you’ll put into place.

  • Share your customer service vision with the rest of your staff. 
  • Empower your staff to make decisions at the moment.
  • Connect your incentive programs and bonuses directly to customer service.
  • Monitor the level of customer service your staff is putting out.
  • Set a time to review and improve your customer experience regularly.
  • Know when you can ignore what your customers want.
  • Continuously focus on your goals.

 

Now that you know what you want, you can start thinking about meeting those wants and creating a positive customer service experience.

If you’re having a hard time deciding on what you want, the tools, resources, and coaches in our GUIDED TOUR can help you define your company’s wants and needs in relation to customer service.

You Turn-Key Me Right Round

You Turn-Key Me Right Round

Posted on by Doogie Levine

To describe to topic of the blog

The most significant area of turn-key businesses is franchises. There is a franchise for every industry in the world, and they are reasonably easy to acquire and come with practically a pop out-of-the-box pre-assembled system. McDonald’s is a prime example, a $40 billion, 28,707 strong example. 

This is why all business owners must create their business model with the idea of franchising it, regardless of whether they chose to. Franchises are the epitome of optimization and efficiency.

 

  • “I put the hamburger on the assembly line.”-Ray Kroc.

 

There are a few things we are going to talk about:

  • Business Format Franchise
  • The Franchise Prototype
  • Franchise Prototype Standards

Business Format Franchise

The business format franchise came from an earlier model call the “trade name” franchise. The significant change was in the rights. During the “trade name” days, the franchise owner only had marketing rights. Now franchise owners have ownership rights to the entire business, including systems. This has allowed for a shift in focus to go from the quality and name recognition of the products carrying the company to sales techniques that move the business.

The Franchise Prototype

The franchise prototypes allowed for the changes to be made that help today’s franchises shine with the techniques developed by the owners instead of the corporation. This can make a significant difference in the franchise’s success as the owner can custom tailor their marketing and promotions to their local target customers’ immediate needs.

Franchise Prototype Standards

The above being said, no one in their right mind would purchase a franchise if the parent company didn’t have a solid plan of action set up to ensure the business’s future success. So, a few standards are put into place that help jump-start opening a successful franchise.

Build a model of prospective customers/clients, suppliers, creditors, and employees who will consistently offer high-quality work.

  1. Build a user-friendly model that individuals of any skill set can use.
  2. Build a defect-free model.
  3. Build a model with Operations Manuals.
  4. Build a model that will provide guaranteed, consistent results.
  5. Build a model that encompasses the same branding in color, dress, and facilities codes.
  6. Build a model that has detailed training and development plan.
  7. Build a model that you would be proud of. 

 

When building your business model, remember to envision franchises doting the landscape.

 

  • “When I saw [Maurice and Richard McDonald’s restaurant in San Bernardino, Calif.] working that day in 1954, I felt like some latter-day Newton who’d just had an Idaho potato caromed off his skull. That night in my motel room, I did a lot of heavy thinking about what I’d seen during the day. Visions of McDonald’s restaurants dotting crossroads all over the country paraded through my brain.” -Ray Kroc.

 

Is your business model up to snuff? Find out by getting a free business assessment designed to help serious business owners generate more clients, close more sales and increase their overall revenue and profits… quickly and inexpensively.

If you’re interested in adding an extra $100,000 to your bottom-line revenue over the next 12 months… without selling more time for money… then I can help you.

Your business growth starts here.