|
|
What our Customer have to say!
Dear Joe:
I wanted to take a moment and express my sincere thanks
for the many, many great things you have accomplished at my company
while working with us on numerous programs.
I believe the most successful part of your consulting
has been the complete transformation of our culture... Your various
programs on "team building" have brought our people
together and they work better together and the measurement is in how
they have improved in our extreme customer service (with regards to
how our staff serves each other and our customers)... Our staff has
better direction and clearly understands what is expected of them
which has strengthened our staff's willingness to be better team "players".
Without exception, my staff has reported to me that you have been a
great source of assistance and helped each of them make positive and
lasting change.
James Baker, President
Ultraguard Protective Services
|
|
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!
|
|
Innovative Business Partners
Inc.
1-877-521-2580
PO Box 60523
Worcester, MA 01606
www.contactibp.com
|
|
IBP on the road!
If you would like to catch IBP on the road, Joe will be
speaking at the following events:
Lowes Motor Speedway
International
Association of Professional Security Consultants
If you have any interest in
our coaching services, workshops or seminars, contact us at www.contactibp.com
clouatrej@contactibp.com
|
|
|
|
|
Dear Joseph Clouatre,
I recently had the opportunity to give my talk
"How Cancer Changed My life and My Career" (TM) to the
Boston Chapter of ASIS International (www.asis-boston.org). I had a wondeful
time and later in this article I will share the great feedback I
received via e-mail the next day. But first I want to share a story
from an airport shuttle last Monday night:
After being held up in LA for a few days, I finally
arrived home late Monday night and was on the shuttle from the
airport. The shuttle was full and I could tell several people were
coming home from vacation. I overheard a couple at the other end of
the shuttle bus saying they had just celebrated the husband's 50th birthday
in the Florida Keys.
Being the shy person that I am, I poked my head out
and said "Have you scheduled your colonoscopy yet?" How
to bring life to the party! His wife then said that she has been
trying to get him to do so but he wouldn't. I then went on to tell
him (as well as everyone else on the shuttle) my colon cancer story
when I turned 50. His wife looked at him and said now you have met
someone that was 50 and found cancer with a colonoscopy. He looked
at his wife and said please schedule a visit to the doctor for me.
As they were leaving the bus his wife leaned over and thanked me
for sharing the story. She went on to say quiety, that she had been
bleeding and had not told her husband. She was going to schedule
one for herself as well. All of a sudden, I realized there was a
reason I had become stranded in LA. It was meant for me to
meet this very nice couple.
So here is the feedback I promised you and if you
ever have a group that is looking for a speaker, it is an
interesting subject with a humerous twist!
· You were wonderful; inspirational and very
real. I think your true message was a critical one and
resonated with many.
· Thank you!
I thought your presentation was wonderful and gave everyone great
inspiration to reflect upon.
· I enjoyed
listening to your story and agree with you that it's important to
do the "homework" especially when it comes to one's life
because after all we only have one of those!
· You were
outstanding last night. Funny and motivating. What a story!
· I did so enjoy
your talk. Your advice is so needed. Your advice to be
educated on it is so needed. Unless you have experienced an
issue, you would not know this. You are doing a great service!
· Your talk was
great and very thought provoking.
· I thoroughly
enjoyed your captivating and heartfelt presentation.
· Your
presentation was great
· It was a very
special evening and your speech was superb!
· Joe is
fascinating; he really should write a book!!!
|
|
I highlight websites that can help your business and
at the same time control costs. When was the last time you sent a
real thank you card? When I started IBP, I started a Thank You Card
tracker and I am happy to say that I have sent out over 200 hand written
thank you cards. I have all different types for various
occasions and interests. However, I want to pass along a new
website that I just joined. Maybe you are traveling or just
got home late, but you wanted to send out a thank you card for
a great meeting you had that day. What if I told you you could
log onto a site where you can pick out a unique
card, type in your unique message, sign it and they
would send it out that day for less than a dollar! Well you can,
just log into www.sendyourcardnow.com.
|
HOW
TO HOST YOUR VERY OWN PODCAST FOR FREE!
If you have ever wanted to host your PODCAST, it is
easy and it is FREE! Whether it is for professional or
personal reasons, hosting a PODCAST is easy and fun. All
you do is go to www.podbean.com and sign up.
Podbean.com is an easy and powerful way to start
podcasting
Easy to publish your podcast in 3 steps. No tech to
learn.
Powerful promoting tools, iTunes Preview,
Statistics.
Wonderful income chances with ads, paid
subscriptions
I haven't tried it yet, but some friends have and
said it was great!
|
Extreme Customer Service® is Still Effective
in this Economy!
I
am often asked if customer service is still
valued in the current economy. My response is an
overwhelming yes!
However the game as changed a little. Prior to the
"crash", you would go into to a potential customer to
understand their pain and provide a solution to eliminate
it.
Today, I find that there are many customers that are willing
to
tolerate some pain or at least a little discomfort, to save
some
money. Having said that, let me give you an example of
how
Extreme Customer Service® can have a dramatic impact
on any
organization.
Last year a company was struggling with customer
retention relating to quality customer service. This company was
receiving so many complaints per week that they had stopped calling
the customers back. I met with the owner and executive team and
they asked me what I could do to help. After I went through my
eight step process, I came back to them and said that it would
require a complete culture change from the top down. Our journey
lasted ten months but the impact was dramatic. When I finished up,
we had gone two months without a single customer complaint and
client retention had improved tremendously. Unfortunately during
the process we had to replace several members of the management
team, because they were the roadblock to delivering Extreme
Customer Service®.
The past twelve months have been extremely busy in the area of
Extreme Customer Service ® seminars and workshops up and down the
east coast. There is a thirst for this type of education,
particularly in the Healthcare Industry. Our seminars range from one
hour introductory seminars, to four hour workshops, to
comprehensive roll out programs. With today's economy you cannot
afford to lose just one customer. What worked yesterday, will not
work tomorrow! Today you have to be creative and must be in touch
with your customer's needs and expectations. For over a year now, I
have been saying that you need to understand your customer's
business and understand how the economy is affecting THEIR
business. It is only then that you will be able to become their
strategic partner for success. Please e-mail us your
thoughts on Extreme Cusomter Service (R).
extremecustomerservice@contactibp.com
The key to providing Extreme Customer Service® is to clearly
determine the expectations of your customer, then exceed those
expectations. Extreme Customer Service is a PRO-ACTIVE process!
|
SELECTING
AN ELECTRONIC SECURITY INTEGRATOR - Checking References
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. Even when I ran an elctronic security company, I
continued to select security integrators all over the country for
my clients. I continue this practice today as a service of
IBP. When it come to checking references it takes
patience and determination. However, when done right, it is worth
it's weight in gold!
1. When you ask for the contact information of references,
make sure you ask for the person's e-mail address. Today it can be
much easier to communicate via e-mail than play telephone tag.
2.Here area few questions to ask each reference:
a. Did they start the project on time?
b. Did they finish on time?
c. Were there many change orders?
d. Was it done right the first time?
e. Did they deliver what they promised?
f. How was their training?
g. How long to did it take to get
manuals and as-built drawings?
h. Were the technicians and sales staff
knowledgable?
i. What could they have done
better?
j. If something has gone wrong,
how have they responded?
k. How are their communications?
l. What is their average
response time on service calls?
m. Do they have enough and the correct
loaner equipment?
3. You should arrange for at least two visits to
references:
a. Look behind the security console for
quality of work.
b. Look at a few cable runs for
quality of work.
c. Look in the data closet for quality
of work.
d. Look in the access panels for
quality of work.
e. Does what you observe make a quality
statement?
a. Ask them for at least three
recent installations.
b. Ask them for at least three that they
have lost.
c. Ask them for at least two where the
projects went bad.
d. Ask them for at least two that are
in progress.
You want to have the answers to these questions BEFORE you hire
your next integrator.
Next issue we will talk about the world of warranties!!
|
|
|
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.
|
|
Joseph E. Clouatre
Innovative Business Partners, Inc.
|
|
|
