Archive for the ‘Staff training’ Category

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Jumping to the wrong conclusion!

February 4, 2015

Man in overalls

My brother-in-law tells me a great story about a day that he was off work to do some painting in the house. He was wearing old clothes as he went about his chores.

Later that day he had to pop over to Douglas on an errand and while over there he popped into a show house in a new housing development that they had been interested in.

He was looking at the new ‘top of the range‘ four bedroom  detached show house. The salesman for the development took one look at him in his scruffy painting gear and without giving him a chance to speak he politely led him out the door and pointed down the street and told him the where the three bedroom semi-detached show house was.

My brother-in-law hopped in his car and headed home to finish his painting..

We should never judge our customer on the first impression..

Greg Canty 

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

 

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Posted in Customer Care, Personal development, Sales, Staff training, Training | 2 Comments »

One complaint …two very different replies

June 28, 2014

Handling complaints

Initially I was reluctant to complain but I felt it was necessary. From what I was told I believed we were really hard done by, we received some really bad treatment and if I just let it go the same would happen again and again.

I was raging and I felt I had to do something to address this situation.

I felt it was really important to address what I felt were serious issues so I wrote a strong complaint email outlining all of my concerns to the person involved.

Reply number 1

The person I wrote to handled the situation perfectly (even if he felt like shooting me !)

He called me, assured me that my complaints were not valid but wanted to hear what I had to say because what I had complained about was very serious and he wanted to get to the bottom of it.  We had a rational conversation, he listened to my grievances and I listened to his replies. By the end of the conversation we hadn’t solved everything, all of the issues hadn’t disappeared but he understood why I felt annoyed and aggrieved and I appreciated that I was listened to.

I was raging when I complained but now I had calmed down because I was listened to.

Reply number 2

Because it was a serious issue my man sent a copy of my complaint email to his boss.

While he was busy trying to contact me to try to sort out this issue his boss was busy with a different approach.

Instead of taking my complaint seriously and wanting to listen his boss sent an angry email responding to me.

Effectively it read “How dare you make any such accusations about us and how we do our business. You are unprofessional to have done such a thing and never dare to complain again”

Hmmm..how did I feel now?

I was raging when I complained but now I was even worse.

His boss had zero interest in what I had to say, denied everything, enquired about none of the circumstances that led to me complaining and instead of treating me with some degree of courtesy and respect and wanting to genuinely listen a choice was made to attack.

This situation was really interesting as we had two different individuals taking quite a different approach to dealing with a complaint.

No one likes to receive complaints but we need to treat them like gifts, listen and learn and then deal with them in a way that diffuses the situation instead of making them even worse.

In my scenario this ‘boss’ needs to take a few lessons from the staff member ..

How you handle complaints is a critical part of maintaining the Reputation of both you and your organisation.

Defuse, don’t inflame

Greg Canty

Greg Canty is a Partner of Fuzion who offer Marketing, PR and Graphic Design services from our offices in Dublin and Cork

 

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Posted in Customer Care, Handling Complaints, Management, Staff training, Training | Leave a Comment »

When mistakes are good

February 4, 2014

Kolo Toure mistake

I watched in horror as the most experienced defender on the pitch gifted the ball to the West Brom striker (formerly from Everton, of course) on the edge of the Liverpool FC box.

Sure enough he buried the ball in the corner past Simon Mignolet to level the match – damn!

Typical ….after thumping Everton a few days previous in a really “tough” match 4-nil, we (when it’s your team you have to say “we”)  threw away a lead in a game we were in total control of.

In truth the game was too easy – it’s as if the players slipped into second gear waiting on the in-form Liverpool strikers Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge to score a few more goals against this very ordinary West Brom team.

The poor defender Kolo Toure hung his head in shame as he knew he made a huge mistake, which contributed to throwing away two valuable points.

The manager Brendan Rodgers was asked after the game about this huge mistake.

Instead of blaming the player he applauded the courage and bravery of the Liverpool defenders to play football instead of booting the ball aimlessly down the pitch. His philosophy is to encourage them to use the ball, pass it and play it forward intelligently.

He made the point that when you take this brave approach you do run the risk of making mistakes and that this one was the first all season, which actually cost the team.

While the mistake hurts deeply when it comes along he reckons it is a price worth paying for playing great football – in truth there is no comparison between the football Liverpool are playing now and some of the awful stuff from a few years ago.

I just left a meeting where everyone is petrified of doing anything because they will know they will get hammered if they make a mistake – the result …no one is doing anything!

To get the best results from your team do you have to allow some mistakes?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing, PR and Graphic Design agency in Ireland with offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Management, Motivation, Personal development, Positivity, Staff training, Teamwork | 2 Comments »

Doing the small stuff great

November 18, 2013

Kerrie O'CallaghanSomeone has to answer the phone and someone has to let visitors into the building and greet them as come into the office.

This isn’t rocket science but at the same time it needs to be done right. You would hope that the person with this responsibility would carry out the task in a pleasant and friendly manner – after all, it is often the first impression that anyone would experience of your business.

We’ve been really lucky down through the years in that all of our team are pleasant and friendly and will give a really good impression of Fuzion.

The primary responsibility for answering the phone (we all do it by the way) tends to lie with the ‘junior’, the person who is newest to the team. Initially we find that the newbie is more than happy with this role but after a while they do want to feel that they are progressing and that this task is moved onto someone else.

While everyone who has worked with us has been great at that ‘hello, meet and greet‘ role we had one person who really stood out; Kerrie O’Callaghan.

Day after day we had people on the phone or who had come for a meeting specifically commenting about how special their greeting was.

This wasn’t an isolated incident but an absolute trend – she did this important, junior, simple but yet important task incredibly well.

Not surprisingly the hugely talented Kerrie, who did everything with 150% enthusiasm, progressed quickly and went on to do every task incredibly well but unfortunately for Fuzion she had the emigration bug and is now enjoying huge career success down under.

It’s funny how someone who does the small things great ends up also doing the big things great..

Kerrie, we miss you!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing, PR and Graphic Design agency in Ireland with offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Customer Care, Motivation, Personal development, Positivity, Recruitment, Staff training, Training | 13 Comments »

Can you feel the love?

October 22, 2013

Chefs tasting

“I can taste the love in the food”

I was fascinated as I listened to this restaurateur describe how he knows when the dynamic is right between the team at his restaurant. He reckons having a happy team who enjoy working together is essential to producing great tasting food.

He tells me he can taste “the love” in the food when it exists with the team and even more importantly he tells me he can taste it when the love is not there.

The ingredients are exactly the same, the preparation is exactly the same but when things aren’t 100% with his team the food just doesn’t taste as good as it should.

For this reason he works hard at talking to his team, having fun with them, listening to their issues, eliminating any issues or strains quickly and generally devoting a lot of his energy to making sure the spirit is as good as it can be.

Is it enough that your team turns up and punches in their time, is it enough that they execute their roles efficiently and professionally?

Without love that food just won’t taste as good as it should.

How does your food taste?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are an Irish Marketing, PR and Graphic Design agency with offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Customer Care, Motivation, Staff training, Teamwork | 2 Comments »

Petty Cash and the Red Head

August 18, 2013

Redhead

We were working to a strict budget but we knew we needed another person in the company to cover a few key areas of weakness.

The person would have to be a really organised all rounder who could help with stock control, provide some admin support and take over the credit control function.

It was a big ask finding the right person to do all of this in particular for the budget we were offering.

I was the financial controller of both Deasy & Co in Cork and Connacht Mineral Water Co in Galway, both Guinness subsidiaries.

I was in Galway early in the morning to conduct interviews with John, the General Manager. Both of us were in our early twenties, bursting a gut to drive on our careers but in reality quite inexperienced.

Applicant after applicant came through and we weren’t finding anyone that fitted the bill.

Eventually a really well dressed attractive young woman came through the door for interview. This gorgeous redhead wearing a sharp suit sat down confidently and answered all of our questions with authority.

To be honest she had taken both our breaths away –  in some way I think both of us were willing her to give us the right answers!

As the interview progressed and we were falling further under the spell of this confident, bright young woman I could hear the different voices in my head “just give her the job“, “give her the job now and forget about the other interviews” “be responsible Greg, start probing …”

“You know the job on offer would involve some credit control?” I asked

“I know, that’s no problem” she replied confidently

“A lot of people find credit control a difficult thing to do, would you be ok with it?” I probed further

“Yes, I would be totally fine with that” she responded but not as assured as earlier.

“How would you describe credit control?” my final question

She batted her eyelids, flicked her red hair and smiled at both of us “Would that have something to do with petty cash?”

We knew we would both be fired within a month if we gave our attractive redhead the job and eventually we settled for a good solid young lad, who we would have to give some training to, so he could manage all aspects of the job.

The fancy package isn’t always the one that will get the job done!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing, PR and Design firm in Ireland with offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Accounting, Recruitment, Staff training | 2 Comments »

Go on – Personalise

August 5, 2013

I Love GregHi there!

Wouldn’t it be a lot better if “Hi Greg” had appeared on the email instead of the words “Hi there”?

Dear Customer,

Wouldn’t it be a lot better if “Dear Greg” appeared on the invitation to attend the launch event instead of “Dear Customer”?

The Manager

Wouldn’t it be a lot better if “Greg Canty” had appeared on the envelope and letter that accompanied the brochure instead of “The Manager”?

Price List

Wouldn’t it be a lot better if  “Fuzion price list” had appeared on the quote instead of a generic price list?

Reserved

Wouldn’t it be a lot better to see “Reserved for Fuzion” on the restaurant table instead of a plain “reserved” sign.

It does take time to customise and personalise, it does take a little extra effort but your communication will resonate so much more when you can avoid being generic. (Personalising has never been so easy with the tools that are now available).

Often being generic can even have a negative effect and can have your customer feeling very “not so special“.

  1. If you can’t personalise think twice about communicating
  2. If you can personalise get it right – double check the spelling of people and company names
  3. Where personalising isn’t expected …personalise!

I received a CD in the post from an Amazon affiliate supplier and the docket had “thanks Greg” marked across it in marker – Wow!

Sometimes it’s really easy to stand out by doing just a little thing.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing, PR and Graphic Firm in Ireland with offices in Cork and Dublin

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Posted in Brand Loyalty, Customer Care, Direct Marketing, Marketing, Retailing, Staff training | 7 Comments »

Thank crunchy it’s Friday?

April 12, 2013

Friday feelingFriday afternoon and I was in the middle of a social media training session with the team from one of our clients operating in the professional services sector.

One of the directors was in the “hot seat” sitting at the controls of his LinkedIn account, which like most people with a profile he never uses.

He never posts, he never interacts but he does press the “accept” button with some of the connection requests he receives.

I encouraged him to post a status update ..”Go on, be yourself and post something“.

He surprised everyone by posting “Thank crunchy it’s Friday” ..

I asked the group what did they think ..two of his colleagues thought it wasn’t quite in keeping with their business and profession, another said he misspelt the word crunchy and some of the others thought it was a good thing to post..after all they explained it was Friday and that’s what most people at work would be feeling.

My own advice and my own experience would have me agreeing with the guys who felt “thank crunchy it’s Friday” was a good thing to post.

It’s really important that you are true to yourself, that you post something that connects with people, that you allow people to see the lighter side of your personality and that you don’t try to post something “heavy” on a Friday afternoon …the most important thing is that you make some noise and start posting on a regular basis so that you and your business will register on people’s radar.

Thank crunchy it’s Friday …what do you think?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion offer in-house social media training and consultancy services in Ireland 

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Posted in LinkedIn, Marketing, Social Media, Staff training, Web Marketing | 12 Comments »

Social Media – Teach or Preach?

January 28, 2013

Cyberbullying

Like most people I am very concerned about the whole topic of Cyberbullying and the effect it has been having on some of our young people.

After the tragic suicides recently we decided to do our part and we produced a simple info graphic called “safebook” , which is an easy guide for young people. Our objective was to encourage the safe and responsible use of social media and at the same time provide clear advice to people who may be faced with a bullying situation.

Safebook Poster - CyberbullyingOur poster struck a chord with people all over the world – it’s been downloaded in over 100 countries, which I put down to its simplicity and I believe it is helping parents and teachers to have sensible conversations about the responsible use of social media with their children.

Our activity in this area has brought us into contact with many teachers, schools and organisations and I can see the considerable efforts that are being made to control and deal with the issue. I am watching the training programmes, I can see the liaison with the authorities and government agencies and I can see how schools are making attempts to block the use of these platforms and do their best to cope with the situation.

I have also heard presentations from Facebook who are attempting to deal with this huge issue, introduce controls and mechanisms to help people report incidents and inappropriate behaviour.

On one side I’m watching all of the downside – the social media concern, the “control” activity but what about the huge upside?

Social media is now a really valuable life skill that we all should learn – most of our clients would grab job applicants who are social media savvy. Is there a dilemma?

Teaching Social MediaTeach not Preach!

From my considerable exposure to this huge Cyberbullying issue my conclusion is that we need to embrace the social media tools from a sensible, early age and we should encourage the positive use of these platforms in schools (probably the best place to ensure this happens).

How about:
– students publishing their essays on their own personal blogs
– classes that show the children how to set up their social media accounts including their privacy settings
– setting up Facebook groups for use by each of the classes
– setting up Twitter accounts for the Economics, History, Science and Geography classes and following and interacting with other relevant accounts to facilitate learning and staying up to date with current issues

At the same time I do feel that the social media providers must self regulate, put in the controls and aids, be proactive around privacy settings and act sensibly – however, the main solution is in the users hands.

While I know it won’t be easy, while I know it will require a lot of training, I know social media is a valuable skill, which will be critical to every young person in the future.

Why not concentrate on teaching and forget the preaching?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion.

Fuzion provide social media consultancy and training services from the offices in Dublin and Cork.

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Posted in Bullying, Parenting, Personal development, Self Help, Staff training | 6 Comments »

Looking for Anna

December 25, 2012

Ellen Canty - coffee

My daughter Ellen is in great form …I am so thrilled for her that life is going so well. She is enjoying her job, she is doing really well in a beauty course that she is doing at night and personally things seem to be fitting into place.

“You’re doing great” I said to her early one morning when she grabbed a lift from me to get to work.

“I am” she admitted, “I’m in great form”

As usual, not leaving anything alone I probed to see why life was so good and it was a mixture of everything that was going on in her life.

Coffee Pod, Winthrop StreetOne tiny but huge factor she attributes to her daily happiness is Anna – every morning before work she grabs a coffee at the Coffee Pod on Winthrop Street in Cork and Anna always sets her in great form with her cheery manner and warm greeting …isn’t life simple ?

Well done to Anna and all the other Anna’s out there, who put us in good form every day by the little, but huge things that they do …. I’ll be calling to the Coffee Pod soon to look for Anna to say thank you.

The small things we do can make a huge difference..

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion are a Marketing & PR firm with offices in Dublin and Cork

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Posted in Brand Loyalty, Customer Care, Hospitality, Staff training | 6 Comments »

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