Books bind people..

in way a Kindle or an iPhone never will!

Physical books spark conversation, unite people or maybe cause arguments but they have an immediate impact.  Just picking up a book and touching it, feeling it, smelling it… it evokes emotions that technology never will.

For a few months last year, I had the dubious pleasure of catching the 7.32am train to London every day - journey time 1 hour.  What a revelation, in MY [ I'm at the beginning of the line] carriage, at least half the “prisoners” were reading books.  From Jodi Picoult to Steig Larsson.  I even made a friend not because we sat next to each other, we had OUR seats but through discussing the books and the ideas therein that we were holding and reading.  Indeed if it had not been for my new friend, Devi I would probably have missed out on the thrilling Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [Millenium] trilogy amzn.to/edsdragon.  The hype surrounding it had had a negative effect on me but just by talking with Devi, I made the decision to find out for myself.  For once all the hyperbole was well-founded.

Earlier this year, I had to be observed by a client whilst delivering training on their behalf.  Instead of encountering a pleasant but judging individual, I found her reading Winter in Madrid by C.J. Sansom amzn.to/wimed as she waited for me to set up the room.  Immediately we were “lost” in excited, mutual admiration for the book and its wonderful engaging narrative (I resisted telling her the end) and suddenly instead of an observer I had a colleague and supporter sitting in on my course.

The other day, I caught up with a male friend who despite being a very successful and busy corporate director is also a great literature lover.  I am confident  he will have bought Winter in Madrid before having boarded the plane on his forthcoming business trip.

The next day, I was reading a tome whilst having lunch in a delightful side street cafe.  As I was about to leave one of the staff members just asked me about the book, She Wolves by Helen Castor amzn.to/edshew, and whether it was good.  A lively discussion and mutual appreciation of the written word, interlacing fiction with historical characters and fact ensued.

I am not suggesting that the Kindle amzn.to/edskindle is not a fantastic technoogical invention that book lovers could, should not enjoy.  Indeed in an interview in the Times this weekend, Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson revealed her passion for books - “I am very protective of books.  I never throw them away and hate those who bend back the covers or write in them”.  However, she got a Kindle for Christmas and said “..a big deal for me as I travel so often that it helps to carry 30 books on something that size.  The added advantage is that my husband won’t know how many books I have bought for it.” 

Like Dame Tanni, for me books are precious, beautiful things and because of that aesthetic physicality have a power to bring people together.  So why not buy a book or borrow one from a friend or a library(while they still exist) and prepare to broaden more than your mind.

Principle, like auld acquaintance, should never be forgot!

It never ceases to amaze me how many businesses have the “ignorance” to do so! However, let’s start by accentuating the positive.  In 2005, I was staying in a small Spanish town, Sanlucar de Barrameda to attend a wedding. During my short stay at a small courtyard hotel nestled in the barrio viejo (old quarter), I was made to feel like part of a family household without any of the obligations that go with it.  And on the day of the wedding, when I realised I needed help with zip fastening, La duena (owner/manager), Olivia looked at my beautiful silk, suitcase creased, frock and immediately produced iron and board and took it upon herself to sort me out so that I could go to the ball without looking like Cinders post 12pm!  She didn’t have to do that…she could have just zipped me up and waved me on my way.

Contrast that with a recent experience with an establishment, part of a chain of hotels, on the South Coast [no not in Brighton] where I was delivering training on behalf of a BIG organisation.  In theory, the training room should be set up with projector, etc. However, I am greeted with a cupboard of a room, no equipment set up and not even a cup of coffee.  Upon my pleasant albeit inwardly seething requests for “something to be done”, I end up with the “head” of conferences [can you have a conference in a broom cupboard?] stating in a giggly [yes she is a girl] “ooh I don’t know anything about technical things”.

But I do not intend to embark upon a tirade about bad customer service, instead I’m going to highlight [prelude more detail in future posts this month] my principles for good customer service:

1) Empathy and engagement - put yourself in the customer’s shoes regardless of the shape or size!

2) Be authentic - saying the “right” things without any substantial integrity and genuine care may get you an initial sale but not long term loyalty.

3) Always bother, always action - even if it means losing a sale and directing someone to another supplier.

4) Show respect for your customer - don’t laugh, don’t judge.

5) Know your product/service and make sure your staff are equally knowledgeable.

6) Be accessible - make it easy for your customer to reach you whether it be having a user-friendly website or a free phone line.

7) Maximise the potential of your sales staff - incentivise creatively.

8) Understand your customers’ needs.  Really understand them - don’t take what they say at face value… Make sure their needs are met and more!

These principles emanate from my observations and studies as business adviser, business owner, traveller and shopper.  As well as developing workshops and coaching programmes for Eddy & Co’s clients, I deliver workshops on behalf of Chambers of Commerce and Business Link.

Follow me on Twitter (@eddyhugs) and get notified of when I’ll be exploring each of the 8 points in more detail.

Call me old fashioned…

but I still believe in customer service!  And not the cheesy, sycophantic and superficial variety but just the simple, sincere and caring type.  I think businesses of all shapes and sizes can learn from examples as diverse as The Savoy and Lorimer’s the stationers [you probably won't have heard of the latter unless you shop in Banstead].

You may have watched the documentary charting the make-over of the Savoy in which they heralded with pride the reintroduction of the Butler Service.  The website includes a statement of ethos of “personal service naturally” and goes on to say “The Savoy Butlers will exceed expectations whether it be arranging dinner reservations,…..or a last minute request”.  Scanning the list of services detailed I think I would be delighted to receive in-suite orientation, a personalised wake-up call and dressing service,…as long as I could choose the butler [s** equality I'd want a gorgeous young man who's training has included the module on how to treat middle-aged women like goddesses of beauty and wisdom).  Frivolity aside, I commend [oh dear now I sound like Aleisha Dixon]…I welcome such retrospective initiatives.

Moving to the hinterland of surburbia, viz., Banstead [not far from Epsom Race Course], I was on a mission to find a refill for my Inoxcrom pen [gift from boyfriend's brother & wife..and a pretty colour..so some effort merited].  Having perused the internet for the aforementioned black refill with no success, I held out little hope as I entered Lorimers.  But the lovely shop assistant was optimism and helpfulness personified.  “It may be an Inoxcrom but I think it’ll take a Parker”  She proceeded to extract a Parker from its packaging with no worries that she may not be able to make a sale, take my pen and test her hypothesis.  And yes she was right and I was a happy customer.

Whether one is going to spend £1.00 or £10,000 and more, the principle is [I believe] the same.  If you genuinely care about your [potential] customer and fulfilling their needs, they will remember you, talk about you and probably come back for more!

It was with some regret that I read in the Times on Saturday, of the impending withdrawal of the word ‘cassette deck’ from the Oxford Dictionary of English [3rd edition is published August 19].

Within the same article, I noted with some surprise that ‘exit strategy’ is only about to be included.  Moreover its inclusion is going to be thanks, not to its use in business [one which I had thought fairly commonplace and usually with a positive assosciation]  but instead unfortunately to its use in military terms.  As the editor of the Dictionary said ” ‘exit strategy’ dates back to 1973, and it looks like it was originally a business term used by a few specialists. But it only came to our attention when it was appropriated by the military.”  Hence the definition: a pre-planned means of extricating oneself from a situation that is likely to become difficult or unpleasant.

My newly gained knowledge happened to coincide with my IT consultant other half finally acquiescing to my request to reinstate a turntable system to play my much cherished vinyl.  And despite his protestations about the poor analogue sound quality, both he and the children [technically sophisticated 7 and 10 year olds] implored me to raise the already high volume of Billy Idol’s raucous tones as they played footie in the garden and I gyrated my hips in the lounge.  This did result in a polite request from next door to kindly reduce the sound level as it was pervading their lounge via the open French doors!

Whilst the cassette deck [and yes I still do occasionally play cassettes in my car as well as the more modern CD - no, I have not yet graduated to an MP3 player) may be officially dead, I do hope that “vinyl”, “LP”, “EP”, “record deck” and “turntable” will never have to deploy exit strategies from the lexis of English.