WeLocals

WeLocals is a community networking program built to help local businesses and residents engage, work and thrive more fully together. We believe that stronger communities make for a better world. 

[wethelocals]

Take a walk on the wild side!

Last week we touched on identifying routes and creating structure to get our business to where we want it to be - what we call the GPS of business.

This week we're questioning routine! - It's great to give others direction, but it's equally important to keep questioning whether that direction is the best one for everyone to be following.

I first got challenged to change my routine in a workshop given by the inspirational Aileen Gonsalves. 

“Just walk on the other side of the street when you come to work - and observe all the things that are different.” The point being that Aileen wanted me to wake up, start looking around me and become aware of my environment again.

The same applies at work. 

if we are to be efficient leaders we need to be able to step back from the comfort of routine, be aware of what’s happening around us, in our own business and in others - and act accordingly!

Sometimes routine will prevail.  Other times things will need to be switched around because circumstances have changed.  It could be any number of internal factors, unintended consequences or external pressures  - but they all need to be identified and acted on if we want to keep our competitive edge. 

Just like that GPS will recommend a different, more efficient route, we need to be able to identify these in the journey that our business is on and decide whether to reset the route or not.

James O’Loghlin is one of Australia's most respected, entertaining and experienced corporate speakers, corporate comedians and media personalities - you can read his great article on the danger of routines here.

Incidentally, changing the routine on my commute led me to the discover one of my favorite Ramen places in NYC - Teppen Ramen - thank you Aileen :-)

Good luck – appreciate any thoughts and feedback.

Tony Powe has 20 years+ experience in the hospitality industry with 3 neighborhood restaurants, a bar, a speakeasy and a prehistoric cave (!) under his belt. He is also the founder and CEO of WeLocals® - he specializes in customer service training for small businesses, incentives and loyalty programs and providing tools to level the field with the big guys. He can be reached here and you can receive his weekly report The Big SMALL® at welocalsreport.com

[wethelocals]

BECOMING A HUMAN GPS!

How often do you end up in place these days and frankly you have no idea where you are or how you got there?

Welcome to the age of the GPS and AI – We’re guided to our destination along the most efficient route. 

Along the way corrections are made for our mistakes or for other unforeseen obstacles, and if we have certain tasks we have to achieve along the way like drop the kids off at school, that can be programmed in as well. 

At any point during the journey we can change to what is now a better route and still arrive at the goal in the most efficient way.

I for one would love my business to run like this.

But I can’t help feeling that my very reliance on tools like the GPS has made my brain a little lazy in this area. Choosing a destination, mapping out the route, monitoring performance along the way and changing routes if necessary, are no longer things that we ask our minds to do on a daily basis.

But in our business they should be.

So act more like a GPS in your business – you’re probably familiar with the where are we, where are we going and how are we going to get there scenario. 

Once you’ve identified this and mapped it out for everyone to follow, make sure you also have tools in place to monitor progress, measure success and point you towards other routes to the same goal if they become more sensible.

Oh – and one other thing – practice that neutral GPS tone if you find yourself looking for someone else to blame. 

A fun exercise that we do sometimes is to give people copies of a google map of the area around their business.  In pairs one person gives directions for a recent journey they made, the other follows the map – we see if they end up at the same place J, they then change roles to discuss it they would have gone the same way and why.

Good luck – appreciate any thoughts and feedback.

Tony Powe has 20 years+ experience in the hospitality industry with 3 neighborhood restaurants, a bar, a speakeasy and a prehistoric cave (!) under his belt. He is also the founder and CEO of WeLocals® - he specializes in customer service training for small businesses, incentives and loyalty programs and providing tools to level the field with the big guys. He can be reached here and you can receive his weekly report The Big SMALL® at welocalsreport.com

[wethelocals]

LOOK AT ME!

I’m in trouble if I go in to a restaurant with a TV playing.  Unless I can sit with my back to it, I can’t help but get distracted by whatever’s going on on the screen.

This, understandably, annoys anyone I’m with who’s trying to have a conversation with me as my eyes keep shifting with distraction.

Remember those times when our parents would try to get our attention with a frustrated  “look at me!”.

They usually did this when they had something very important to say and wanted to make sure that we listened and had understood.

Essentially they were getting us to focus not just one but two senses on them – hearing and sight.

By doing this they could not only be sure we were listening but also judge our reactions and see if the message was getting through.

And we know this method worked!

Guess what, the opposite is also true.

 Not only is it helpful to get others to look at us when we have something important to say, it’s equally important for us to look at others  – and not just because of the obvious reasons like sincerity, interest, respect and trust

 Just as importantly, looking at people gives you a chance to read people and decide how well your strategy is working:

Are they listening to you?

Are you getting through to them in the right way?

Are they understanding you?

Are they agreeing with you?

Do you need to change tactics to get your point across?

Start practicing in everyday life – look at people when you say thank you – you will come across as more sincere and trustworthy, plus you will be able to make a much better assessment of the person you’re talking to.

Eye contact is a powerful tool – use it to maximum effect.  Here are some more tips and views on achieving more with positive eye contact.

Related subjects: Ditch the cellphone

Good luck – appreciate any thoughts and feedback.

Tony Powe has 20 years+ experience in the hospitality industry with 3 neighborhood restaurants, a bar, a speakeasy and a prehistoric cave (!) under his belt. He is also the founder and CEO of WeLocals® - he specializes in customer service training for small businesses, incentives and loyalty programs and providing tools to level the field with the big guys. He can be reached here and you can receive his weekly report The Big SMALL® at welocalsreport.com

[wethelocals]

BUY A PLANT!

Like most people, I get a little peeved being told how to run my own business.  But I do like it when someone comes up with an idea that will help me do things better!

We’ve all been there. Had a great idea, meant to follow through with it but got distracted by one of the many other issues that come up in the day to day running of our business.

I can’t count the times that I’ve taken time to think about my business strategy and implementation

What are the most important things that need focusing on?

How are we going to implement them?

How are we going to own them and get others to embrace them?

How do we make sure they stay in place and are effective?

What are the success measures?

I come out of these sessions psyched with great action plans. Only to find that a few days later, I’m focusing on something else and I have no trigger to pull me back on course. 

I loved the analogy Elizabeth Lyle used in a Ted Talk the other day on how to break bad management habits, describing herself as a serial dish stacker as she allowed them to pile up in the sink, always finding excuses not to take care of them!

My solution came when a friend of mine suggested I buy a plant for my desk!

Apart from sounding a little O.T.T., you’d think that this would be pretty simple but, after a few failed attempts, it became obvious that a little thought needed to go in to this.

What type of plant best suited my environment  – I wasn’t so sure so I asked my colleagues?

What does that plant say about me?

How much care would it need?

Would I be prepared to take care of it?

Who would take care of it if I was gone?

What would I do if it turned out to be the wrong plant – how would I Know?

Ok, so you can see where this is going if you compare both lists.

But, actually the most important part of having a plant on my desk is the fact that it acts like a constant trigger.  Every time I look at it, it reminds me that projects have to be nurtured -

And just like everything else, if I ignore it, it will fail and die.

So, even if it’s not a plant, get yourself a trigger that sits near your place of work and reminds you that your business and the very structure and systems that you have set up need nurturing.

Here’s an additional bonus. It also encourages conversation when colleagues  visit your work station. And so you start to encourage similar behavior in others!

Tony Powe has 20 years+ experience in the hospitality industry with 3 neighborhood restaurants, a bar, a speakeasy and a prehistoric cave (!) under his belt. He is also the founder and CEO of WeLocals® - he specializes in customer service training for small businesses, incentives and loyalty programs and providing tools to level the field with the big guys. He can be reached here and you can receive his weekly report The Big SMALL® at welocalsreport.com

[wethelocals]

DO NOT DISTURB WHILST .....Doing business!

It’s pretty obvious why Apple has the DO NOT DISTURB WHILST DRIVING feature on the I-phone.  

The same applies to business. We may feel we’re multitasking and getting lots done as we hold meetings, check our devices and juggle tasks , just as we will sometimes text whilst driving because of course nothing’s going to happen to us and we know how to do this efficiently!

But, just like that time we almost walked in to a lamppost, we’re not totally immune  to distraction which can lead to accidents and bad calls.

And then there’s the other side of the coin.  Even if we are that good and can juggle all of this, think of the message we’re sending to anyone we’re trying to engage with whilst being glued to our device.

My texts, emails and stock updates, in fact anything on my screen is more important than you.  Even if that is the case, it’s not what we want to convey and there goes any opportunity for effective collaboration, respect, eye-contact, bonding and earning trust – amongst other things!!

PLUS, our obsession with that tiny screen is distracting us from being able to plan, strategize and perform as we are bombarded by information and requests that send your brain spinning in  all directions.  Think back to our “Get Out” piece where we  focused on the importance of creating space to think.

The problem is that we’re living in a world where our device has become our third arm, we’re even texting each other at home instead of talking to each other across the room!

But let’s not beat a dead horse.  I think we’re all pretty aware of the situation.  The trick is to find some workable and effective solutions.  Here are a few tricks that I’ve found quite helpful:

A)    ENCOURAGE GOOD BEHAVIOR IN YOUR TEAM:

You may think that as the boss you’re different from your team, need to be permanently connected and are good enough to multi task.

That may be true but it doesn’t fly.  Teams take their cue from leaders. If you’re permanently on your device, they’ll feel they have to be too. If you always appear to be distracted and multitasking, they will assume the same behavior is expected of them.

A distracted, multi-tasking team that isn’t focusing on the subject at hand is a rabbit hole you want to avoid.

Make a habit of checking your device away from your team or your customers.

If you do need to check it in front of them, acknowledge that you have to do so and why.

This will encourage good behavior in your team and in the way that they behave in front of customers.

 B)    ACKOWLEDGE THAT WE ARE LOST WITHOUT OUR DEVICES:

Having said all this, it’s true that psychologically we all feel we can’t survive in this crazy paced business world without being permanently plugged in.

So factor in time for everyone to check their devices and emails during meetings & events  – 5 minute breaks every half hour for example.

Have realistic guidelines on cellphone use and when to silence ringers.

Discuss what is and isn’t acceptable practice – for example may use a smartphone to take notes – what’s the policy there?

In a retail/service environment, create an area where team members can go to check devices during their breaks. This way you acknowledge the need for this but also encourage it not to happen in front of customers.

 C)    DON’T LET OTHERS WASTE YOUR TIME:

The device is on the other foot so to speak - What to do if someone else is ignoring you or being distracted by their device?

Politely tell them that you will resume the conversation when they are less busy: “I can see you’re busy. Let’s talk about this later”

 D)    DITCH THE CELLPHONE WHEN YOU “GET OUT”

Going back to our first piece – don’t take your device with you for that thinking moment that you’ve trained yourself to have.

If you’re moment includes music, make this independent of your other notifications – ever wondered why people still have I-pods?

 Here are some further interesting thoughts on this in an article I was reading in US News business.

 Good luck – appreciate any thoughts and feedback.

Tony Powe has 20 years+ experience in the hospitality industry with 3 neighborhood restaurants, a bar, a speakeasy and a prehistoric cave (!) under his belt. He is also the founder and CEO of WeLocals® - he specializes in customer service training for small businesses, incentives and loyalty programs and providing tools to level the field with the big guys. He can be reached here and you can receive his weekly report The Big SMALL® at welocalsreport.com

[wethelocals]

WHY DO YOU DO WHAT YOU DO?

This is probably one of the most important question you need to answer as a business owner or know the answer to if you work for a business.

In our case, it’s one of the first things we explore with a business owner when we work on any of our improvement Sprints - we see it as one of the pillar foundations of any business.  

It’s often also known as the “Purpose” of a company: Why does your business exist?  What is its reason for being?

This is different from your strategy (“how” your business operates) and your mission (“what” your business does and “where” it’s going) and plays a major role in setting the core values of your business and managing expectations.

WHY or your ‘purpose’ is important for many reasons – here are just a few:

Basis for your Strategy, Mission & Value

Lifts your business to a higher, more aspirational level by focusing on a goal that goes beyond simple monetary gain.

Instills trust in your business and product amongst both your team and your customers

Provides your team with clear expectations and your customers with realistic ones

Encourages innovation within defined but broad boundaries

Provides motivation to achieve a goal  

Generates customer and team loyalty

EVERYDAY LIFE EXAMPLES:

Before you start thinking about your business, it’s useful to think through some everyday life examples.  We often follow this route instinctively without even being aware of it. In the following examples, knowing the purpose of the activity ensures that when we implement the strategy and mission we achieve the goal and bring others on board .  In all cases we have a clear view of why we’re doing something and asking others to do it with us or for us.

Exercising on a regular basis:

WHY? Keeping a healthy body leads to a healthier state of mind and a better life style.

HOW? Find a form of exercise that works with our schedule, complements our life style (which might include those around us too), leads to healthier state of mind and can be integrated in to our routine.  

WHAT? Exercising regularly

Vacation Planning:

WHY? Recharging batteries with a change of scene

HOW? Find, research and book vacations that are aligned with our purpose  (this gets particularly interesting when there is more than 1 of you)

WHAT? Book a relaxing vacation

A baby trying to get tell us she/he’s hungry:

WHY? Eating to survive

HOW? Use every means we know to communicate with a human to get food – depending on the effect this could be a number of things not involving language: crying, smiling, gurgling etc…

WHAT? Get fed

Here’s a great read on this if you want to explore it further.

Good luck – appreciate any thoughts and feedback.

Tony Powe has 20 years+ experience in the hospitality industry with 3 neighborhood restaurants, a bar, a speakeasy and a prehistoric cave (!) under his belt. He is also the founder and CEO of WeLocals® - he specializes in customer service training for small businesses, incentives and loyalty programs and providing tools to level the field with the big guys. He can be reached hereand you can receive his weekly report The Big SMALL® at welocalsreport.com

[wethelocals]

Get Out!

Whether you like it or not you’re bogged down by stuff at work.  Your smart phone’s got a mind of its own, your team knows exactly where you are and how to bother you and everywhere you look is a reminder that something needs to get done or chased up on. Basically you have no time to think!

So, if you need to do a little planning and strategizing, what are you supposed to do?

You could try closing your eyes and doing it right where you are. The chances are there’ll be some kind of distraction within seconds.  Also, you really need a trigger to tell you that this is when you shut yourself off from the fast paced life around you and focus on finding a solution to a single subject that you want to focus on.

One great way is to find a “thinking” space – somewhere where you can go to get away from the daily distractions both mentally and physically -  it doesn’t have to be a defined physical space, it can also be a physical action like a bike ride, a walk, a run. Personally, I go for a walk in Central Park!

Peter Bregan, in the Harvard Business Review, suggests that you “think about where you do your best thinking and make it a habit to go there daily” – Here’s his full article if you have the time to read it.

There’s also some interesting research by Giada Di Stefano, Francesca Gino, Gary Pisano, and Bradley Staats who found that participants who did an arithmetic brain-teaser and then reflected on their strategies for solving it went on to do 18% better in a second round than their peers who hadn’t set aside time to reflect

So go on change things up a bit, get out and go find somewhere to reflect!

Good luck – appreciate any thoughts and feedback.

Tony Powe has 20 years+ experience in the hospitality industry with 3 neighborhood restaurants, a bar, a speakeasy and a prehistoric cave (!) under his belt. He is also the founder and CEO of WeLocals® - he specializes in customer service training for small businesses, incentives and loyalty programs and providing tools to level the field with the big guys. He can be reached hereand you can receive his weekly report The Big SMALL® at welocalsreport.com

[wethelocals]

Passion Gone Viral - The Gonsalves® Method

 Or how to get others to buy in to your vision.

March 2018 - A summary of our workshop with WeLocals

All communication is 55% Body Language, 38% Tone of voice, and only 7% of what we Say.

The Gonsalves® Method gets you under the words to make 100% connection. It is rooted in attention and connection moment to moment. When we are not self conscious, we can be the most present version of our unique selves, and can respond to the world from that more empowered and authentic place.

●      We trained our attention outwards, off ourselves, and onto the world around us, using the senses - what can you smell, touch, taste, hear and see in each moment.

G Method Tip: Try before a presentation or when nervous tune into what you can hear.

●      We listed behaviour in our partner tuning into detail - really looking.

●      We walked backwards and forwards towards our partner trusting our point of view,  having permission to connect with their eyes and bodies without words. We let each other in. When self conscious appeared we threw our attention back outwards -  what is our partner doing now?

●      The first moment is key - we walked in the room and threw our focus on three things people were literally doing (no guessing, no emotion just factual behaviour - blinks, pulling hair back, adjusting clothes - tangible ) to pull us over to our “audience” before we even spoke. We “listed” them silently. We trusted ourselves to respond from our unique point of view (later we learned how, in that first moment, we can see and can respond from the point of view of our objective).

●      Choose simple objectives and check “is it working”. Change Tactic accordingly.

Wording objectives like the following example allows us to try different tactics and change according to how well or badly we are doing. In each moment of interaction ask  “is it working?”. The answer is in the other person’s behaviour. If it’s going well, keep going, if it’s going badly, change tactic immediately and check to see if that tactic change made it worse or better…..

 ●      E.g. Get them to engage with me because, if they engage with me, they’ll stay in the shop longer and more likely buy something. If they don’t engage with me they’ll leave and I’ll lose some revenue, a potential new customer and a future ambassador. They should engage with me because I was really present, friendly, authentically there with them.

 Fill in according to your situation - the capitals are you objective, negative and positive stakes (what matters) and then it’s your entitlement.

 G Method Tip: Get your staff to try a different one each day?

Get them to respect me, trust me, smile, be inspired, take me seriously etc…

 Good Luck! And remember the trigger “Is it working?”

To find out more about our future series of workshops that speak to small businesses or about our other small business advisory services contact Tony at [email protected] 

Tony Powe has 20 years+ experience in the hospitality industry with 3 neighborhood restaurants, a bar, a speakeasy and a prehistoric cave (!) under his belt. He is also the founder and CEO of WeLocals® - he specializes in customer service training for small businesses, incentives and loyalty programs and providing tools to level the field with the big guys. He can be reached here

[wethelocals]

Love, love me do!

Or how to get your customer to start to love your business and become your best ambassador.

Now you’ve mastered your exterior make-up, fixed your face (store front), and used all the physical tools you have available to welcome and put your new customer at ease, it’s time to use your most effective weapon!  One that can really make you stand out from the crowd and beat the big guys!

Personal communication!

Remember the statistic. Communication is: 55% Body language, 38% Tone of voice, 7% What you say (Dr. Albert Mehrabian, author of Silent Messages)

So let’s talk about body language, tone of voice and words – yours and of course your teams.

This is like the first date.  All your previous tactics have worked, you’re about to have your first face to face meeting. You want to make the best impression possible, get the other person to really like you and start a relationship (unless of course they’re not suitable!).  

So what do you do?

First you get all psyched up, prepare for the date and tell yourself that this is it - this is the one for you!  

You know your goal is to get them to really like you so you’re determined to put your best foot forward.

You still don’t really know this person that well so you’re not exactly sure which things they’ll find the most interesting and compelling about you. But you really want them to engage with you.

Suddenly they’re there! You naturally start looking for any signs and clues.  You’re reading the person in front of you and reacting to things; their mood, their interests, their expectations, desires and feelings.  

You’re doing this by focusing on what their bodies, their tone of voice and their language are telling you. They look bored, you change the subject, they lean back from you defensively, you give them more space to come back towards you, they look interested you continue with the subject.

You know that the success of your mission is totally dependent on how well you can focus on the other person, react to the clues and shift you behavior and tactics accordingly.

After all - you don’t want this:

If you’re not observing and reading the person opposite you, you’re in grave danger of turning in to the self-absorbed date who rabbits on endlessly and nervously, looks down at their shoes or phone, glances the other way, fails to click and comes across as totally un-compelling – which may not actually be the case. But the point is you’ve failed to engage and get them to like you more – they won’t be coming back for another date!

Dealing with customers who come through the door is no different

The more you can read them and react to their clues, the quicker you can get them to trust you.  The quicker and better you can get them to trust you and engage, the more likely they are to spend money, come back and tell their friends what an amazing store you have.

One great way to start thinking about this and become more aware of a technique we’ve all used at some point in our lives is to take this Celebrity Store test #3

It’s a simple and fun way to help you focus on this subject and come up with some ideas to implement.

At the end of the week, fill in the score card for your store and see how it stacks up.

If you can, ask your team to do it too and then discuss things together over a coffee or a drink – you’ll be amazed at how much you’ve learned and the great suggestions that come out to improve engagement with your customers and make you more perfect on your first date!

Plus, by involving your team in this, you’ll achieve another crucial customer service goal of encouraging team engagement and motivation.

Part of the Welocals training blog

Tony Powe has 20 years+ experience in the hospitality industry with 3 neighborhood restaurants, a bar, a speakeasy and a prehistoric cave (!) under his belt. He is also the founder and CEO of WeLocals® - he specializes in customer service training for small businesses, incentives and loyalty programs and providing tools to level the field with the big guys. He can be reached here

[wethelocals]

Does your profile match your personality?

Or what happens when your customer visits your store for the first time.

You’ve mastered your exterior make-up and fixed your face (store front), it’s time to get to work on your first date!  Your customers love the way you look from the outside, now they’re going to come through the door to meet you – you’d better live up to expectations!

I was amazed to find out the other day that there’s a statistic floating out there that all communication is:

55% Body language

38% Tone of voice

7% What you say (Dr. Albert Mehrabian, author of Silent Messages) 

Before we even get to actual body language by you or your team let’s first talk about your store’s body language and tone of voice (an easier one to control though just as important)

Think about it, the moment your customer comes through the door, they’re receiving messages and reacting to the atmosphere you’ve created.  Instantly, before they even have a chance to talk to anyone, your customers will start judging and deciding whether to trust you from the way your store looks and feels – so take advantage of this and use it to your full advantage.

Atmosphere, we’re told is created by the 5 senses: Sight, Sound, Smell, Taste, and Touch.

Analyze these and see if you are touching these senses in a way that is getting your customers to react the way you want them to and giving them what they have come in expecting.  Did you know that even the warmth of a room will affect purchasing habits! (science direct).

One great way to start is to take this

Celebrity Store test #2

It’s a simple and fun way to help you focus on this subject and come up with some ideas to implement.

If you can, ask your team to do it too and then discuss things together over a coffee or a drink – you’ll be amazed at how much you’ve learned and the great suggestions that come out to improve your store atmosphere and make you more perfect on your first date!

Plus, by involving your team in this, you’ll achieve another crucial customer service goal of encouraging team engagement and motivation.

Part of the Welocals training blog

Tony Powe has 20 years+ experience in the hospitality industry with 3 neighborhood restaurants, a bar, a speakeasy and a prehistoric cave (!) under his belt. He is also the founder and CEO of WeLocals® - he specializes in customer service training for small businesses, incentives and loyalty programs and providing tools to level the field with the big guys. He can be reached here

[wethelocals]

Your face is a mess

Or - easy ways to give your business a facelift and start courting your customer.

We’re all rebels and local heroes in the small business world but sometimes we need to take a good long look at ourselves in the mirror.

Courtship is a key part of customer service – it’s important to make our businesses look attractive and approachable to our potential customers. Also, our team will take its lead from how much we seem to care and what image we are trying to project.

This process starts way before anyone even comes through the door.  Reviews, recommendations, online presence, social media and the way our business looks from the outside are all key factors in how attractive we are.

Today we’re going to look at physical attraction – also known as the store front!

It’s one of those things that’s easy to overlook as our store ages – we open with everything looking pristine and proud but then, as time goes by, other things take over, priorities change and we start to ignore and don’t notice the little wrinkles.

Totally understandable but take a moment to look in the mirror and see your store front from a customer’s point of view.

One great way to start is to take this quick

 Celebrity Store Test #1

It’s a simple and fun way to help you focus on this subject and come up with some ideas to implement.

Ask your team to do it too and then discuss things together over a coffee or a drink – you’ll be amazed at how much you’ve learned and the great suggestions that come out to improve your own store front and make you more attractive. 

By involving your team in this too, you’ll achieve another crucial customer service goal of encouraging team engagement and motivation.

Part of the Welocals training blog

Tony Powe has 20 years+ experience in the hospitality industry with 3 neighborhood restaurants, a bar, a speakeasy and a prehistoric cave (!) under his belt. He is also the founder and CEO of WeLocals® - he specializes in customer service training for small businesses, incentives and loyalty programs and providing tools to level the field with the big guys. He can be reached here

[wethelocals]

Who gives a pickle?

Or finding a recipe for success!

 Our business started on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. So did the famous Pickle Day Festival .

Traditionally we’ve had a stand at Pickle Day promoting our neighborhood loyalty and rewards program on the Lower East Side.

The challenge though is that everyone who comes to this event is focused on one thing and one thing alone: Pickles!!

So how do you get them to pay attention to you if you’re not a pickler? – if you’re sandwiched between two pickle stands the likelihood is that you will spend all day watching pickle addicts run past you to get their next fix!

This year we realized this was a big Dill so we scratched our heads to come up with an idea that would stop the crowds and get pickle fanatics to talk to us and hear our message – “once you’re pickled out, use our Welocals app to explore the neighborhood and discover all the other great stores”.

We decided we’d do a “count the pickles” competition with a $100 prize – bureaucracy and respect to real picklers would not allow us to have live pickles at our stand so we trawled the internet for plastic pickles – we found Pickle Pens!

 Armed with our pens (engraved with “WeLocals App – it’s a big Dill!”), we proceeded to dump them in to a big pickle jar and ask the question – how many pickle pens in the jar?

Simple but the reaction was great – hundreds of people stopped at our stand, hundreds downloaded our app, we got to talk to everyone about our program and some people even tried to bribe us to give them Pickle Pens! 

Did it achieve our goals? Yes – we later tracked customers and found them using the app in our member businesses in the neighborhood.

What’s the Take Away? 

·      Assess the situation and your audience

·      Work with the tools you have or create them

·      Work out how to get your customers attention

·      Decide what you want to get your customers to do

·      Get them to do it

·      Track, monitor and maintain.

A perfect example of that is coming up soon.  Small Business Saturday.  Since 2010, a ton of marketing money has been thrown at this by global players like American Express and local organizations rightly promote this as a great opportunity for small local businesses.

Small business Saturday is a great promotion (it produced $15 Billion in sales last year!), but it’s also an opportunity to do much more. First you want to stand out from the crowd, then you want to find a way to not only get customers to come in to your store and spend but to come back again and again.

Here’s a piece I wrote last year which gives a few simple ideas on how to really take advantage and make  Small Business Saturday – every day

Tony Powe has 20 years+ experience in the hospitality industry with 3 neighborhood restaurants, a bar, a speakeasy and a prehistoric cave (!) under his belt. He is also the founder and CEO of WeLocals® - he specializes in customer service training for small businesses, incentives and loyalty programs and providing tools to level the field with the big guys. He can be reached here

[wethelocals]

Let’s Get Personal!

In an age where we bemoan the fact that everything and everyone is going online to do their shopping, it’s scary how we’re falling victims to this in our own stores.

One of the big advantages that we have as neighborhood businesses over the faceless online competition is the fact that we can provide a quality of personal customer service that is not available elsewhere.

By doing so, we can charm customers with a unique personal experience that will keep them coming back. It’s no coincidence that Apple and now Amazon invest so much on a physical bricks and mortar presence!

So - small business owner beware. Don’t over digitalize your businesses for the sake of efficiency and lose a key asset in your arsenal.

Here are just a few examples of where this can happen:

POS systems: There’s nothing wrong with a POS system per se (it’s great for inventory, efficiency, accuracy etc..), but it can also lead to laziness.  When a cashier is bent over scanning bar codes and all you hear is:

“Next!/Swipe your card/Sign/Next!”

Then you know you are missing out on a golden opportunity to promote your business and build relationships.

Loyalty Programs: most loyalty programs are run through a POS system, making them seamless. But in this case seamless can be an opportunity missed - far better to implement a loyalty program that encourages positive communication and interaction between the customer and the business even if it does take a few more seconds of your time.

Smartphones/Tablets: We’ve all become victims of the smartphone but customers are not impressed if your team needs google every time there’s a question about a product. They’d also rather you were “liking” them as opposed to being glued to Instagram, texting friends or checking email.  

Get personal - find ways to encourage your team to engage with customers.

You can do this through training, establishing behaviors and attitudes and by providing your team with tools that force positive communication and interaction with customers.

Our WeLocals® loyalty program is one such tool, designed it in such a way that it requires a social interaction every time it is used.

Tony Powe has 20 years+ experience in the hospitality industry with 3 neighborhood restaurants, a bar, a speakeasy and a prehistoric cave (!) under his belt. He is also the founder and CEO of WeLocals® - he specializes in customer service training for small businesses, incentives and loyalty programs and providing tools to level the field with the big guys. He can be reached here

[wethelocals]

Evaluating how good your customer service really  is:

My last blog found us chatting about how Frank Flavell (Alabaster & Fern) and I were invited by Townsquared to conduct a workshop and present our thoughts on customer service.

After encouraging businesses to do a spring clean and evaluate how good their customer service was, we got some interesting feedback.

How can we as small business owners objectively check how good our customer service is?

1) We (small business owners) can do a self-evaluation of our customer service?    

But our team will see us coming

And will do what they think we want rather than what they usually do.  

 2) Or we can get someone else to do it – The question is who?  

Most agencies seem to be too expensive for small businesses.  

We could get a friend to mystery shop but we’d still have to spend time putting guidelines together etc..

I remembered all the times I wished I’d known someone who could just drop by my bar, my restaurant or my tourist attraction and given me some quick, honest & objective feedback on how my team was doing on the customer service front.  I always wanted to ask a friend but, of course, never got around to it!

This got Frank and I thinking.

What if we could find a reasonably priced service that would give small businesses the opportunity to get a very basic and objective customer service check-up?  

This check-up would look at how customers are being treated before, during and after their visit and give some pointers for improvements?

We couldn’t find one.   So we decided to use our 30 years + experience in the customer service industry to come up with the $50 Check-up.

We priced this very reasonably so that it made sense to small businesses and also knowing that we could offer this a lost leader via our incentive and loyalty program,  WeLocals.  

Why? Because we’ve seen that, once small businesses have improved their customer service and have a strong foundation to build on, they can then build on this and focus on making their incentive and loyalty programs perform and work to affect the bottom line!

So, whatever route you choose to take, self-check, friend-check, agency-check take a moment to spring clean and reassess your customer service.

Then ask yourself if there are any programs out there that could help you build and strengthen the customer experience in the areas that you’ve identified as the highest priority for your business.

If you need some guidelines on this, you can access a copy of our “CPR – breathing life in to customer service” document here

[wethelocals]

How important is Customer Service to Loyalty and Incentive programs?

When I talk to business owners about loyalty or incentive programs, the conversation often comes around to customer service.

Why?  Because any loyalty or incentive program is really an extension of customer service.

Incentive Programs, aimed at new customers, identify your voice and set expectations for your target potential customers, setting the tone for when they actually come to your store.  

Loyalty programs allow you to make customers feel special by bringing them in to your “club”, carry on the conversation with them once they’ve left your store, encourage them to recommend you to friends and attract them back and reward them for staying loyal to you.

So, if the basic attitude to customers in your business, your “customer service” is luke warm/casual and the customer is seen as a given rather than an opportunity, it stands to reason that your loyalty or incentive program will not succeed the way it should.  

At best, it will be embraced half-heartedly, at worst it will be misunderstood and seen by your team as a waste of time and (possibly) money and retired to some back shelf somewhere!

And why does it matter?  

Because, for small businesses especially, customer service is a cheap tool that can make you or break you. Done well it differentiates you from the competition promotes your business and brings customers back, done badly, or not at all, it will scare away customers and ruin your reputation fast.

Here are a few statistics to chew on:

Frank Flavell (C.E.O. of Alabaster & Fern) and I developed a whole workshop around the topic of customer service and how to improve it, which we presented at a Townsquared sponsored event the other day.

You can get a copy of our presentation “CPR – how to breathe new life in to Customer Service” here.  

You might also be interested in reading about a few ideas on how to find out How good your customer service really is!

Tony Powe has 20 years+ experience in the hospitality industry with 3 neighborhood restaurants, a bar, a speakeasy and a prehistoric cave (!) under his belt. He is also the founder and CEO of WeLocals® - he specializes in customer service training for small businesses, incentives and loyalty programs and providing tools to level the field with the big guys. He can be reached here

[wethelocals]

Thank your customers effectively

Last month, we looked at how loyalty programs can fail to produce the results we’re looking for.  

At the same time we established the 3 basic elements that make any initiative really work:

So here goes:

CHOOSE CAREFULLY

Choose a loyalty program that will work for you and your goals, makes sense to your business model, compliments your customer service program and doesn’t involve a whole ton of extra work, equipment & training.

Remember, it’s not just the reward that matters, but also the personal relationship that gets built up and the word of mouth that gets generated which then encourages new customers to visit you. (see 7 steps to customer engagement)

TRAIN

Once you’ve decided you want to run a loyalty program, make sure you make it part of your business process and customer service program.  Train your team to encourage all your customers to become part of it.  

EMBRACE

Part of the training includes making your team realize that this is something that is important to the business, effects the bottom line and is not an optional passing fad that can be allowed to gather dust.

SHOW THE LOVE

Customers need to feel that you genuinely appreciate their loyalty and that this program is a way to recognize them as most special and reward them.  Make them feel that they are doing you a favor by being part of it.

PROMOTE

Once your team is psyched and sees the benefits of the program they will then be able to promote it continuously and effectively.

Encourage customers to also inquire about the program by promoting it with a tasteful flyer/poster/decal and put it on your website.

Promote in-store with unique deals just for members of your loyalty club.

RE-ENFORCE

Introduce simple systems that continually remind members of the team to push the program:

At WeLocals, we’re just introducing a little pop up or sticker to go on the register:

“Are you part of our loyalty program?  We’d love to have you join, so we can thank and reward you for being a great customer”

Tony Powe has 20 years+ experience in the hospitality industry with 3 neighborhood restaurants, a bar, a speakeasy and a prehistoric cave (!) under his belt. He is also the founder and CEO of WeLocals® - he specializes in customer service training for small businesses, incentives and loyalty programs and providing tools to level the field with the big guys. He can be reached here

[wethelocals]

Sit back, relax ... and watch your rewards program fail!

Ever had that frustrating moment where you’ve spent days or weeks setting up a Loyalty program – and then it doesn’t really work?

It may be that you’ve chosen the wrong kind of program for your store – we’ll be looking at that in a different blog.

Or it could be that you’ve fallen in to the trap of thinking that, once a program is set up, it’ll simply run itself – It won’t – it needs to be actively promoted and universally embraced.

Implementing a loyalty program is like introducing any new ‘system’ to your work environment and employees – it needs to be very clear that this impacts the overall success of the business. If your team don’t think it’s important and you don’t seem to care that much either, it won’t work.

Here are some of the attitudes that need to be avoided right from the start if you want your initiative to succeed:

1)   UNNECESSARY: misunderstood by employees

As we know 80% of our business comes from 20% of our customers yet giving rewards to existing customers can often seem counter intuitive.  Often, there’s a feeling of “why should I give something away to someone who is already coming to my store”.  Instead the attitude should be “let me show my appreciation to someone who visits regularly and give them another reason to come back again”

2)   UNIMPORTANT: Treated as optional

For busy small business owners, this is an easy trap to fall in to even if we do have the best of intentions. It’s easy to set something up and then walk away thinking that it will run itself – without constant promotion and monitoring though, the danger is that it loses importance, becomes seen as optional and starts to gather dust.

3)   EMBARASSING: Presented apologetically

A consequence of this is that it appears to employees that the store doesn’t really believe in its own program.  This then passes on to the customer who are either never made aware of the fact that the business wants to reward them for their loyalty or, if they are, that it is not heartfelt and offered begrudgingly -  “we have a rewards program but you’re probably not interested”

4)   TOO MUCH WORK: Too cumbersome

Sometimes we or our employees feel they’re just too busy to go through the whole process of registering points, punching cards  etc.. This may be a sign that the program is too complicated or involves too much extra work on the business’ behalf.

With careful planning, Loyalty programs can be a great tool but they do need thoughtful setting up. 

In our next blog we’ll explore the tips on how to make loyalty programs work better. We learned most of this while working with our partner stores on the  WeLocals initiative.

Tony Powe has 20 years+ experience in the hospitality industry with 3 neighborhood restaurants, a bar, a speakeasy and a prehistoric cave (!) under his belt. He is also the founder and CEO of WeLocals® - he specializes in customer service training for small businesses, incentives and loyalty programs and providing tools to level the field with the big guys. He can be reached here