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What our Customer have to say!
When I engaged Innovative Business Partners and Joe
Clouatre to present a workshop on customer service last year for my
staff and me, I was confident that my investment would pay
off....
One of the complaints I was hearing most often from my staff centered
on those local managers who just didn't seem to "get it"
according to my employees.....
This frustration was voiced by my staff during Joe's presentation and
Joe asked what we had done so far to help our clients to "get
it.".... I think I said something like, "We can't be
responsible for educating our customer's employees.".....
There were many great things that came out of that workshop, but what
I'll always remember was Joe's simple response to my statement when
he said, "Why not?" From that workshop was born Safer
Places, Inc. University (SPIU) which is a series of free webinars
designed to help our clients understand the complicated world of
background checks and how to get the most out of them at the least
cost. Two major clients have now made this mandatory training
for their frontline managers and we have since customized webinars
specifically for them.
This has already paid great dividends as the HR Directors are thrilled
that we have taken this part of their jobs and made it easy for them,
at no cost.
Thanks Joe for providing that little adjustment to my thinking.
Your program helped to change my belief about who my customers
actually are and how I can provide them with Extreme Customer
Service.
David Sawyer, CPP
President, Safer Places, Inc.
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Champions of Extreme Customer Service!
"Don't forget to submit your true stories of
Extreme Customer Service (R) to extremecustomerservice@
contactibp.com
$200 for the Quarterly Winner and $500 for the
2010 Champion!
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Innovative Business
Partners Inc.
1-877-521-2580
PO Box 60523
Worcester, MA 01606
www.contactibp.com
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IBP CONTINUES TO
GROW!
Over the past few months IBP has continued to grow in a variety
of vertical markets. Recently customers have joined us from the
folliwng industries:
Contract Security
If you have any interest in
our coaching services, workshops or seminars, contact us at www.contactibp.com
clouatrej@contactibp.com
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Dear Joseph Clouatre,
For those who know me, you know that auto racing has
been in my life forever. Since I suggested he start racing at
5 years old, I have watched Derek Ramstrom (www.derekramstrom.com) race
to the top of every level of racing he has entered. Last Friday
night, we celebrated his 2009 Super Late Model Champion at the
Thompson International Speedway. At the age of 18, he is the
youngest driver to win a championship in the 70 year history of the
track! Next week he will kick off the 2010 season at the Toyota
All-Star Shootout in Irwindale CA. Derek will be
attempting to Qualify his #53 Camping World Series car with top
drivers from across the country. You can watch it live next Saturday
night on the SPEED Channel at 9pm! I have been sponsoring Derek for
many years and he truly one of the nicest kids you would ever want
to meet. His race cars are already on their way across the country
and I am flying out with the team Wed night! Wish us luck and
don't forget to watch us on the SPEED channel next Saturday night!
I thought you might like a THEN and NOW of Derek as a race driver.
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In each issue of our newsletter, I highlight
websites that can help your business and at the same time control
costs. A great website to help you with your graphic needs is www.99designs.com . You create a project and outline your
objectives. You decide what you want to pay and launch your
project. You will have numerous designers submit their
designs and at the end, you select the winning design and
award them the amount you posted. Recently I wanted a new graphic
design for a marketing piece. I posted my contest and had 13
designers submit a total of 21 designs. I narrowed it down to
a final three and finally award the $100.00 to the winner.
I loved the graphic!
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HOW
TO HOST YOUR VERY OWN INTERNET RADIO SHOW FOR FREE!
If you have ever wanted to host your own radio show,
it is easy and it is FREE! Whether it is for professional or
personal reasons, hosting an internet radio show is easy and fun.
All you do is go to www.blogtalkradio.com and sign up. We have had
so much fun at IBP since we started our own show. We have guests
and discuss a variety of topics. As long as you have a laptop and
internet connection you are ready to go. If you have any
questions about this, feel free to email me at clouatrej@contactibp.com
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EXTREME CUSTOMER SERVICE(R) - DISASTER RECOVERY
Whether you are working with internal or external
cusomters, it is not a question as to whether something will go
wrong, it is WHEN will something go wrong.
When it "hits the fan" people do not look
at it as an oportunity, but it really is. You have a chance to take
a negative situation and turn it into a positve situation.
Most times people get so worked up and take it so
personl that they do not approach it as a problem solving process.
The next time you face a serious problem with a customer, try the
following process.
1. Face the music: After hearing about a complaint,
the first thing you need to do is contact the customer immediately.
You may not know what to say, so say that! "I do not
know what to say, but I am sorry this happend."
2. Establish expectations: Even though the customer
is very upset and might not want to talk, you MUST aske questions
to establish the customers expectation. Once they tell you what
they expect, feed that right back to them. "So you want us to
complete the job by next Friday"? You must confirm the
expectation during the first conversation.
3. Resolve the problem: Sit down with your team and
come up with a plan to fix the problem and meet the customer's
expectations. Make sure you communicate the action plan back to the
customer as soon as you have one.
4. Exceed the customer's expectation: Once you have
finalized a plan to MEET the cusotmer's expectation, take it one
more step. Come up with a plan to exceed that customers expecations
and DO NOT tell your customer. If you can pull off the super plan,
you will blow away the customer. If you do not, then you will at
the very least, meet their expectation.
If you find a ways to exceed the customers
expectation in this challenging situation, that will help taking a
negative situation and turning it into a positve one. The key to
sucess is to clearly approach this from a process standpoint and
not be distracted because you take it too personal.
The key to providing Extreme Customer ServiceŽ is to clearly
determine the expectations of your customer, then exceed those
expectations. Extreme Customer Service is a PRO-ACTIVE process!
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SELECTING
AN ELECTRONIC SECURITY INTEGRATOR - SERVICE CONTRACTS
If you are looking for a new electronic
security integrator, there are many things to remember. Over the
next few issues of the IBP Educator, we will outline
many questions to consider. Often when you go out to bid you
receive nice proposals and they will detail the project with the
associated costs for THAT PROJECT only! However, most times you are
looking for a long term relationship, so there are many additional
questions to ask BEFORE you sign on the dotted line so there are no
surprises after the sale:
1. Does the service contract cover 24 hours or
does it only cover normal business hours?
2. Do service contract customers receive priority
response of non-contract customers?
3. Do contract customers receive a discount for
non-contract services?
4. What would the discount be for multple year
contracts?
5. Ask them what is NOT covered under the service
contract?
6. What will be the average response time on
service calls?
7. Does the service contract cover acts of god,
such as lightning?
. How many preventative visits will be made each
year as part of the contract?
9. Will there be a primary technician assigned to
my account?
10. Before you sign, test their 24 hours service by
calling into the company on a week night or weekend!
You want to have the answers to these questions BEFORE you hire
your next integrator.
Next issue we will talk about checking references!
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Thanks for taking the time to read our newsletter.
We value your input and suggestions. If there are any topics
that you would like covered, just let us know. Please feel free to
pass our newsletter along to anyone you feel might enjoy it.
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Joseph E. Clouatre
Innovative Business Partners, Inc.
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