Life Success Strategies for Soulpreneurs®

Health, Wellness, and Business

Well, here we are at the end of another quick week.  For me this has been an exceptionally busy one.  My husband, Bill, had his gall bladder removed last Friday, September 26, which also happens to be my birthday.  It was the first time I've spent my birthday in the waiting room of a hospital...  Not that I'm complaining.  I was glad to be there and see him come through with flying colors.  Bill is home recuperating slowly, and thankfully, nicely.

Any of you who have experienced the politics and systems of hospitals will identify with the truth of this statement, "you don't go into the hospital to rest and recuperate."  From our experiences, you go into the hospital to get done what you have to get done and get out as soon as possible.  With the noise and interruptions all night long, restful sleep is not to be found.  Not only is it cost prohibitive to stay in the hospital, it is also downright exhausting!

Even though Bill had a rather large incision, he insisted on coming home after three days.  He couldn't take the lack of sleep any longer!  Even having the ability to administer his own drugs every 20 minutes didn't help much.

I don't know about you, but I would think at the price of a hospital stay, they could be a little more "hospitable" and at least ensure you get to sleep through the night, unless there are extinuating circumstances...  I would certainly choose a hospital that I knew realized the value of deep sleep, which helps your body heal itself more quickly, and helps your total outlook on life.

What do you think?

The Business of Health and Healing

Well, here we are at the end of another quick week.  For me this has been an exceptionally busy one.  My husband, Bill, had his gall bladder removed last Friday, September 26, which also happens to be my birthday.  It was the first time I've spent my birthday in the waiting room of a hospital...  Not that I'm complaining.  I was glad to be there and see him come through with flying colors.  Bill is home recuperating slowly, and thankfully, nicely.

Any of you who have experienced the politics and systems of hospitals will identify with the truth of this statement, "you don't go into the hospital to rest and recuperate."  From our experiences, you go into the hospital to get done what you have to get done and get out as soon as possible.  With the noise and interruptions all night long, restful sleep is not to be found.  Not only is it cost prohibitive to stay in the hospital, it is also downright exhausting!

Even though Bill had a rather large incision, he insisted on coming home after three days.  He couldn't take the lack of sleep any longer!  Even having the ability to administer his own drugs every 20 minutes didn't help much.

I don't know about you, but I would think at the price of a hospital stay, they could be a little more "hospitable" and at least ensure you get to sleep through the night, unless there are extinuating circumstances...  I would certainly choose a hospital that I knew realized the value of deep sleep, which helps your body heal itself more quickly, and helps your total outlook on life.

What do you think?

Did You Hear What They Said? 3 Tips to Make Sure …

It’s no secret that the world is full of diverse and unique beings.  My husband, who is left handed, never fails to amaze me in his method of solving problems.  Since I’m right handed, we always go through two different thought processes to reach the same conclusion.  He, of course, loves to remind me that he is in his “right mind”.

Not only do we think differently, we hear differently.  People tend to hear other people based on their perceptions and what they have lived through.  What we hear is what we expect to hear much of the time.  Sometimes the customers we’re talking to aren’t telling us the whole story, so it’s even harder to get a clear picture of how we can best serve them.

Our range of understanding and our ability to serve our clients expands with deeper more intuitive hearing.  As we listen closer and repeat what we believe we are hearing, it gives our customers a clearer understanding of how their needs are received by us.  Many times there is a disconnect between what our customers want and what they are communicating to us.

In our construction business, we recently had a long-time customer come to us because he wanted to replace his unsafe deck and build a new garage.  After talking to him over a period of time, we discovered that what he really wanted was to make his vacation home more livable, so he and his wife could potentially retire there someday.

After much more talking and fact finding with him and his wife, it became obvious to him, and us, that his wife didn’t like the house and did not see it as a potential full-time home.  In light of this discovery, he is now rethinking the project and is considering selling the house and buying a newer home they would both enjoy more.

Taking the time to intuitively “hear” your customers will allow you to give a deeper level of service that many service professionals don’t take the time to deliver.

Here are 3 tips you can use to learn to hear intuitively.

·         If your customer has a significant other, and your product or service will be used by both, request that they both be present during the initial consultation.  This will give you the opportunity to see the reactions of both customers and observe the body language, tone of voice, and level of interest in what you have to offer.

·         Repeat back to them your interpretation of the conversation for clarification.  You will be surprised at how often you did not hear what they were really saying.

 

·         Provide a detailed description of the product or service you discussed in your written proposal or order confirmation.  This will avoid misunderstandings at a later date.

All the efforts you make to actively listen, intuitively hear and confirm what you heard from your customers will set you apart from the competition, and new customer referrals will surely follow.

© 2008   Sandy Reed - All rights reserved

Want to use my articles in your ezine or website?

You're welcome to, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

"Sandy Reed is the President and Founder of the International Association of Women in Family Enterprises (IAWIFE).  She is a professional business coach, writer, and co-owns her own successful family business.  If you're ready to take your family business to the next level of success; receive support, education, and connect with like-minded women, join her members at www.iawife.com.  Sandy's business building articles have been published in True Wealth and Simply Home magazines."

Challenging Customers – Love Them or Leave Them?

My husband and I have been blessed with many wonderful customers over our 25+ years owning and operating a residential construction business.  In fact, I could count on one hand the challenging ones.

One customer in particular caused me many sleepless nights and more than a little stress for a few weeks.  The relationship started out on a positive note, but quickly turned south when it became clear that their expectations and ours could never meet at a place of compromise.

If you own a small business, you will likely run across some customers who try your patience and may even cause emotional turmoil and undue stress.  Here are 7 tips, from a Soulpreneur’s perspective, to help when you encounter disgruntled customers.

1.       Keep Your Cool.  When you’re upset, don’t make rash decisions.  Remove yourself from the situation, if possible, so you can look at it with fresh eyes.  Time and distance can give you time to think about the interaction from all points of view.  

2.      Everyone is unique and different.  Understand and accept that personalities will clash from time-to-time, and it’s a normal part of doing business.  If you understand it’s normal, you can learn techniques to help you handle them without getting excessively defensive and taking it personally. Customer conflicts happen to the best of us. 

3.      Customers are human too.  You don’t know what’s going on in their lives.  Maybe their dog just got run over, or they just got fired.  With intuitive listening you can hear what they may not be saying.  Observe their tone of voice, body language, and the key words they use to get clues about what may be going on in their life.  Try putting yourself in their shoes for a while.  Empathy can go a long way towards resolving the issue at hand.

4.      What are you learning that you can use in the future?  We learn with every customer interaction, good or bad, what we can do differently in the future.  In every experience are the seeds for a new way of looking at life – and the potential for doing it better in the future.  This becomes clearer once you’re past the emotional aspect of the interaction.  Again, time and distance will give you a new perspective on the situation.

5.      Where are you placing your trust?  Are you stuck on looking at the challenging customers you’ve had in the past, or are you able to trust in the basic goodness of most people and focus on the ones you want now?  If you keep your mind on the type of customers you want, you’re placing your trust in the ability of the Universe to deliver them to you.

6.      Visualize and affirm what you want.  Your thoughts send magnetic signals that bring back to you what you think about, in the same way tuning into a radio station picks up that station’s frequency in the ethers.  Make sure you’re tuning your thoughts into the frequency of the specific type of customers you want – customer’s that are prosperous and easy to serve.  I have a 3x5 index card on my refrigerator that says, “Wonderful, prosperous customers call us daily wanting our quality construction services.”

7.      Trust in yourself.  You can’t always trust in other people, but you can always trust in your inner guidance.  If you’re meeting with a prospective customer and get that feeling of dread in the pit your stomach, it may be a warning that it would be better to refer the person to someone who is better suited to their personality.  Always listen to your feelings. 

Turning challenging customers into great, easy to-do-business-with customers is not usually an easy task.  Sometimes it’s better, as we found out, to let them go as quickly as possible, learn from the experience, and focus on bringing the customers you really want to your business.  Then you can focus on meeting, or exceeding, their expectations and getting those valuable referrals. 

© 2008   Sandy Reed - All rights reserved

Want to use my articles in your ezine or website?

You're welcome to, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

"Sandy Reed is the President and Founder of the International Association of Women in Family Enterprises (IAWIFE).  She is a professional business coach, writer, and co-owns her own successful family business.  If you're ready to take your family business to the next level of success; receive support, education, and connect with like-minded women, join her members at www.iawife.com.  Sandy's business building articles have been published in True Wealth and Simply Home magazines."

Winning Customer Relationships – 5 Tips to Success

Here are 5 tips to help you build a better customer relationship that will keep them coming back again and again.

1. Where are you mentally? Before you meet with your client in person or by telephone, evaluate where you are physically and emotionally. Are you ready to approach this conversation with an open mind and the intention to look for how this interaction can benefit both of you? If not, take the time to check in with yourself.  What you can do first that will put you in the right frame of mind to have an enjoyable, and productive, conversation?  Maybe you can go for a walk, have lunch at your favorite bistro, or just take a quick break in the fresh air. 

1. Speak their language. When talking to your clients, listen closely to the descriptive words or phrases they use. Use their words in your own conversation to promote clarity, understanding, and connection. Notice if this builds rapport between you.
   
   
2. Be there! This is not the time to think about what you are going to fix for dinner or what your kids may be doing in the next room. Watch your client's body language and reactions (if you are talking to them in person), or listen to and match their tone, volume, and rhythm, and sense their energy (if listening by telephone). Hear what they’re saying and acknowledge them and their contributions throughout the conversation. Saying things like, 'I sure can identify with that, tell me more,' will show them you are with them.
   
   
3. See your business through your client's eyes. Just for a moment think about how you would feel if you were sitting in your customer's chair. Would you want to do business with you? If not maybe it's time to approach the situation and yourself differently. Ask yourself why you are interacting with the client as you are and what you can do about it. Did you stay up too late last night? Did you have a disagreement with your kids? Usually if you are having difficulty responding to your clients in a kind, understanding, and helpful manner, there is a personal care issue involved.
4. Ask your client what is most important to them. Do you know why your clients come back to you or send you referrals? If not, (or if they aren't coming back), it's time to find out why. If they aren't coming back or sending you referrals, and you don't want to provide the service that is most important to them, it may be time for you to either outsource the part of your business that matters most to your clients, or find another business that you enjoy more.

The bottom line is although the customer may not always be right; your business will suffer if they don’t feel appreciated.  If you let them know you not only appreciate them, but you’re glad they are part of your business, they’ll most likely keep coming back, and send referrals too!  And that’s how a good business becomes a great business!

Surviving Technology – 5 Tips to Keep Your Customers from Firing You…

As a business owner, how you perceive your customers trickles down into all aspects of your business.  How you feel about them, talk about them, and serve them provides a filter that your employees and service providers see through, and that your customers can perceive right away.  This is a filter that your customers are intuitively aware of in their interactions with you.  They will be attracted to you, or not, based on how you feel about serving them.

When you’re starting out in a new business, you may be looking for ways to best utilize your time, since it may be just you juggling all aspects of the business.  Utilizing the latest technology is one way you can potentially alleviate some of the stress of being the only person answering the phone.  As a small business, you may be competing with many larger companies, so customer service is especially critical.  One major advantage of being small is that you get to interact with your customers on a more personal level, and this is where you can shine.     

If you decide to use technology in your business it may be one of the first interactions your customers have with you as a service provider.  Their first impression of your business through this technology can start you off with a warm, friendly relationship or an adversarial one.  Once a relationship starts off on the wrong foot, it’s always harder to change its direction…

A common example, I encounter on a daily basis, is the use of directive recordings for the first contact with customers.  As a continuous user of technology, I want it to provide me with a reliable way to access information, so I can connect to the people and resources I need to build a financially viable business.  When I call for support and receive recording after recording, with no option for talking to a live body quickly, it’s wasting my time and causing me stress and frustration.  In this way, technology is keeping me from experiencing the very ease of communicating and accessing information it was supposed to provide!

The maze of companies that have gone to this method of providing customer service is astounding.  In many cases, by the time a person reaches a live body they are so frustrated that the service rep has to first overcome their irritation before the problem can be addressed.  In addition, you need to take great care in choosing the tone of the recording, since reaching a recording, as the first point of contact with a company, can make customers feel like you don’t want to be bothered with their requests for service.   My mission, as the Soulpreneur’s Coach, is to provide my clients with alternatives for serving their customers from a soul-inspired perspective.  How would a Soulpreneur create a better customer experience, and serve the company’s best interests at the same time?  Here are some possible answers to this dilemma.

1.       Give the customer no more than 3 or 4 recorded options when calling in for customer service.  One of the options should always be allowing the customer to dial zero to reach a person, who can immediately direct the customer to the department that can best help them.  I suggest using zero since it’s the most universally recognized number for operator assistance.

2.      If you require that the customer input their account number, don’t ask them for it again when they reach a service provider.  If your technology doesn’t allow you to transfer the account number to a representative, don’t require that the customer provide it up front.  If the account rep needs to verify the account number, tell the customer they are asking again for verification purposes, or verify other personal information instead.  Repetition is a small, but irritating, inconvenience.

3.      Always provide a call back option if customers have to wait more than five minutes to speak to a representative.  Show your customers you respect their time and you will find the respect is returned.

4.      Always call back the same day, if possible, but no later than 24 hours after the initial contact.  Unresolved issues that go on for an extended period of time cause customers to be even more irritated when they finally speak to someone who can help them.

5.      When talking to customers, always listen to all the issues before responding.  I have had more than one customer service representative interrupt me before they heard all my issues.  This led to me repeating the problem several times, and more frustration, because I was not being heard.

When you look at your customers from a Soulpreneur’s perspective, you see them first as normal people with fears, insecurities, and obligations just like you.  These are people who are looking for your business to help them:

·         Solve a problem.

·         Enjoy life more.

·         Feel better about themselves.

·         Provide something they need.

·         Feel more secure.

The bottom line is, they are coming to your business because they want help.

In the technology arena it’s easy to get side-tracked by the latest and greatest thing to make your life and business “easier”.  But technology alone won’t pay the bills.  Always come back to the basics of great customer care strategies. 

© 2008   Sandy Reed - All rights reserved

Want to use my articles in your ezine or website?

You're welcome to, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:

"Sandy Reed is the President and Founder of the International Association of Women in Family Enterprises (IAWIFE).  She is a professional business coach, writer, and co-owns her own successful family business.  If you're ready to take your family business to the next level of success; receive support, education, and connect with like-minded women, join her members at www.iawife.com.  Sandy's business building articles have been published in True Wealth and Simply Home magazines."