Posts Tagged ‘Cork’

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Tipping the Customer

September 28, 2013

Hostaria La Cross, Garda

It was bucketing out of the heavens as we stared out the window of our hotel in Garda in Italy during our summer holidays. It hadn’t let up for over an hour and it showed no signs of stopping anytime soon.

We had planned a leisurely stroll into the lakeside town and a nice meal on the waterfront but that was impossible – the tummies were groaning at this stage and the hotel restaurant was shut.

The restaurant that was directly across from the hotel (we were about a mile away from the lakeside strip) didn’t have the views that were on the lake but it didn’t seem to stop the steady stream of locals using the place since we had arrived.

Day and night there was a constant stream of Italian cars in and out of the place – it must be good if the locals were going there we reckoned. I checked on Four Square (a phone APP where you can leave tips about places) on my phone and the restaurant had some quite good reviews left by previous diners.

We decided to make a dash for it and despite it being just across the street we did get fairly wet.

Hostaria La Cross, GardaHostoria La Cross gave us a warm greeting as we entered but after doing so the waitress left us standing there – two minutes later she came back to us with two glasses of prosecco .. “welcome!“.

Wow – we were given a gift on the house before we had sat down or ordered anything.

It put us in great form and we had a fabulous meal (despite every second dish being laced in truffle oil..can’t stand that smell!)

Of course we left a big tip after our special night but really appreciated the “tip” the restaurant gave us at the start of the meal.

The last few times I have taken taxis in Dublin and in Cork I have noticed that each time the driver has “rounded down” when it has comes to the fare “€10 is fine” when the fare clocked €10.70.

The simple gesture is a big change to how it used be and it shows the appreciation of the business and invariably you end up leaving a good tip.

Last night after our meal in Bacco in Ballincollig we were offered a Limoncello on the house as we were settling the bill. They showed their appreciation for the business …”Thank you, we’ll be back”

Giving the customer something they are not expecting is a clever way of saying thank you and building customer loyalty.

Are you tipping your customer?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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

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Posted in Customer Care, Holidays, Hospitality, Marketing, Sales, Tourism, Travel | 9 Comments »

10 Years, Crystal Balls and Awards

September 19, 2013

Chambers Ireland - CSR Awards - Greg Canty, Fuzion PR

10 Years ago my buddy Tommy Doyle collected me from my old job. I handed back the keys to my five month old Saab 93 (that was tough as it was the best car I had ever driven!) and I handed in the keys to the office – I was done with my well paid job as General Manager and about to start my life as a 100% self employed person.

Tommy took me to O’Brien’s in Little Island for a sensible breakfast before we started a day of celebratory drinks – the boy was set free!!

While I was in celebratory mood quietly I was really nervous – I had just shut the door on a long and quite successful career in the drinks industry and was about to enter a new world, which required me to totally reinvent myself and put bread on the table at the same time.

If I had a crystal ball I couldn’t have predicted the 10 years that I have had …

  • We traded in Dee’s car and bought a second had Santa Fe jeep (hated that jeep!)
  • We toured Ireland with our high profile luxury women’s event Catwalks with top models, top brands and Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet fame (great fun but exhausting!)
  • I sold my music stores – I had three stores in Cork, Limerick and Dublin
  • We did a lot of work with Killarney Golf and Fishing Club, launching the new Killeen course
  • We took on our first staff member, Ali who is still with us
  • We took on more PR staff and a graphic designer
  • We opened an office in Cork city – who remembers the punishing four flights of very uneven stairs?
  • The recession came crashing in and wiped out some really good clients –  We adopted the “storm the recession” approach (great book)
  • We bought a new Santa Fe jeep (liked this one!)
  • We had to write off nearly €200k in bad debts over three years, mostly because people were unable to pay but we did get caught by some chancers as well – the Credit Control Warrior and Famous were born!
  • We started to do PR and social media training – this has been so enjoyable and we have met so many great people through these courses 
  • We got married eventually – Dee still calls it “her” wedding!
  • I started blogging and realised I love writing
  • We won a national PR award for the “War Crimes” Cystic Fibrosis , St. Vincent’s Hospital  Campaign
  • We took on staff in Dublin and opened an office
  • Dee’s mum Joan sadly passed away – a dynamic and challenging woman (my buddy Tommy made her giggle by calling her a …. I better no say!)
  • We moved to better offices and celebrated Fuzion’s 10 years in business
  • I really started to excel at social media lecturing for the Digital Marketing Institute and providing courses for Enterprise Boards and clients
  • My kids are both flying, Brendan with his video production company Feel Good Lost and Ellen with her own career
  • We bought a brand new car, a Jaguar XF, one that was better than anything I ever had before – this is something we had to do for oursleves 
  • We managed a few really great holidays to the US, Italy, Turkey, Greece  and Cuba and back to Italy again
  • We continued to grow picking up national PR recommendations for Tour de Munster and Safebook
  • We are about to unveil a statue to celebrate the values of a great man Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty

No crystal ball could have predicted these 10 years, the variety, the speed that it  has flown by, the tough economy that have us working our socks off and digging deep continuously, the sadness and the smiles, the stress and the joy, the worry and the excitement, the highs and some lows, the friends and team mates past and present.

I have had to totally reinvent Greg, bringing all of my old skills and moulding these into a new sector including social media which didn’t exist 10 years ago when I started this journey. When I tell people I started off life as an accountant most won’t believe me!

For me the culmination of this 10 years was accepting a National Award at the Chambers Ireland, Corporate Social Responsibility Awards  event last  week for the work we did on “Safebook“, which was really my baby. We designed a simple info-graphic to encourage our young people to behave responsibly and respectfully online and a simple “how to” if they are victims of cyberbullying.

All of the Fuzion skills including PR, Design and my knowledge of social media helped us to push this out internationally to over 100 countries (a few months ago we were asked to translate it into Hungarian for a conference in Zagreb!) – we are making a difference!

!0 years …wow!

What will the next 10 years bring for me and for you?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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

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Posted in Business Start Ups, Marketing, Personal development, Positivity, Social Media | 29 Comments »

Cork Ghosts

September 5, 2013

Cathedral and Shandon - Cork

We are working on a project at the moment and as part of this exercise we asked people a very simple question: “What do you love about Cork?”

As you can imagine we received all manner of responses, which are quite revealing about our great City and County.

One particular response from Fiona Whyte is worthy of special attention as it is so brilliant:

“What I like most about Cork are the ghosts, the ghosts of the older city, guarded behind the imposing presence of Father Matthew.

Move away from Father, over the bridge, along the quays and up Shandon Street, you leave behind the modern city and its quest for sophistication. Here, in amongst ebony skinned youths and pink-haired girls, the ghosts emerge from steep steps and lane ways.

A man in a long brown coat tips his hat at me as he passes by and I swear it’s Frank O’Connor. Shop fronts cry out Polski. A teenage girl at the bus stop checks out her Facebook updates on her smart phone. But the buildings can’t cover their origins of decades and decades ago and everywhere the music of the Cork accent rings out loud, louder even than the bells at the top of the hill.

Going past the North Cathedral and down Cathedral Walk – my mother still calls it Chapel Lane – children in the school yard are shrieking as they fly from a pig-tailed pursuer.

Girls are whirling ropes and one chants rhymes as the others skip. I think she’s my grandmother. I learned those same rhymes from her, and No. 3, the house where she was born, is just nearby. Its walls have been recently painted white but this cover up of its natural grubbiness is temporary, I’m sure.

What’s more, I’m certain now that if I walk through the front door, beyond the heavy curtain which separates the three foot square alcove from the not much larger living area, I will be greeted with a welcoming if toothless smile from the tiny woman who inhabits the chair in the corner. Her white hair is pulled back in a bun. Her black skirts reach the ground and a heavy black shawl is wrapped tightly around her. She holds court from the corner, though she rarely speaks. But all eyes are trained permanently in her direction, for just above her head, perched on a sloping shelf, is the miracle box, a chest of moving black and white images accompanied by muffled sounds. My grandmother’s mother, she lived to be ninety-six.

Leaving Cathedral Walk, I turn back to town and treat myself to a Moroccan couscous lunch in Cafe Bendec. I look out the window, content that here on Pope’s Quay, amidst the scurry of vehicles and pedestrians, the ghosts continue their eternal patrol”

Fiona ….wow!

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

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Posted in Cork, Family, Tourism | 8 Comments »

Driving too hard a bargain

August 20, 2013

Super pub

We were thrilled when the biggest super pub in the City called us and invited us to pitch for their business – we must be doing something right I thought.

At the time I was the General Manager of  Deasy’s, a Guinness subsidiary with depots in Cork and West Cork. We were drinks wholesalers and we delivered beer and soft drinks to the pub and off licence trade in these areas.

We had been doing quite well and this pub was one of those “prize” accounts that all our competitors were chasing. The business they were doing would probably be about 20 times the size of a normal pub.

This was an account we wanted so we put a really competitive price list together. There was enough in the price to win the business but still leave enough for us to make it worth our while.

Not good enough – we had to do better.

I guess this was no surprise as the incumbent wasn’t going to lose this business easily and the buyer  (in those days no one had a buyer but this crew had!) was going to quite naturally play us off against each other.

We sharpened the pencils and ate into our margins leaving a little left for us.

Not good enough – we had to do better.

At this stage we cut our margin on products across the board effectively giving them the cheapest prices we were giving anyone – this was crazy but if we wanted this prize account its what we had to do.

The buyer rang our Sales Manager – congratulations, we had won the account and they looked forward to doing business with us. Over time with the introduction of some new products and a few substitute brands we might be able to bring it back to some level profitability.

After our first delivery the buyer rang and told us that he had some breakages left over from his previous supplier that he wanted us to uplift. We would have a look at them and decide what we could do – even with out of date alcoholic products we would be able to reclaim the duty and pass the rebate back to them.

We inspected the breakages and there was a huge quantity of all sorts that he wanted to return – clearly they had done a clear out of their stock room and expected us to take back this rubbish that had been accumulated for years. Many of the products were non-alcoholic and some were brands that we never stocked and would not be able to get credit from anyone.

We carefully assessed the breakages and informed the buyer how much credit we would be able to manage. He informed us in no uncertain terms that he would pull the whole contract if we did not give him a 100% credit at our list prices – he was being totally unreasonable but he was serious.

We reluctantly collected the “rubbish” and processed the credit.

The account continued in this vein – he wanted emergency deliveries at a moments notice whenever he ran short, often at quite unreasonable times.

He pushed us so hard and continued to do so – so much so that there was no win left for us and we were starting to feel quite abused.

All of a sudden it wasn’t our prize account, it was a thorn in our sides. We started to get strict with them – they had to order properly, we cut out emergency deliveries. We maintained a good level of service  but now it was on our terms.

From time to time our suppliers would give us beer fridges and promotional events that we could allocate where we chose – needless to say we never passed these onto our “prize” account.

After six months we got a call from their purchasing manager who wanted to do another round of “squeezing” and was inviting us to submit our best prices.

This time we did a full review of our price list, increased the prices across the board and politely let someone else be a busy fool – that was the last time we set foot in the place.

James Caan - The Real DealIn James Caan’s book “The Real Deal” he spoke about a valuable lesson his dad had taught him from his leather trading days – it was always vital that you made sure there was a “Win-Win” left for both parties in a deal.

In our case there was certainly no win for us and in truth the supplier also lost out – they pushed us to the point where we didn’t actually care about their business any more.

Be careful not to drive “too hard” a bargain and make sure you walk away before the point where the business just isn’t worth it anymore

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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

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Posted in Accounting, Customer Care | 13 Comments »

Barack Obama and his lesson in Social Media

August 11, 2013

Barack Obama and Michelle

I probably show too many slides when I give my social media courses.

I always try to communicate my points with visuals using as few words as possible. At all times I will try to avoid slides with lots of text – I get bored with them so I’m sure anyone reading will do likewise.

My usual courses run over either two or three sessions and I normally try to leave it at least a week between sessions so that students and clients can practice in between sessions and get the most from the training programme.

The big challenge is when I am asked to cut the course into one session – this is really tricky as I have to do a huge “cull” of my material to come in at the required time and still cover the ground sufficiently.

I hate losing slides as all the material is designed to make a specific point, so inevitably valuable material gets lost.

There is one slide above all in my presentations that is precious and if I had a situation whereby I had the time to show only one this would be it.

I love this particular image because for me it sums up the magic of social media and teaches a huge lesson in how to use it.

I was asked to make a presentation to Dublin Chamber about the use of Twitter for business and it happened to coincide with the results of the last US election. Due to other commitments the night before I had to travel from Cork early in the morning to get to Dublin for the 7:30am presentation.

Like the rest of world I was intrigued about the result so the first thing I did when I woke was to check twitter on my smart phone and this is the tweet I saw.

This Barack Obama tweet was the most retweeted of all time – even at 4:19 am our time, it had been retweeted 475,000 times.

Why do you think I love using this tweet so much?

  1. It demonstrates how Twitter is now the first port of call for breaking news
  2. It demonstrates the shift from Facebook to Twitter – During his first Presidential campaign he was not using Twitter, it was all about Facebook.
  3. This medium was how he chose to communicate to the outside world that he had accepted he had won the presidential race
  4. The message is really simple and concise (often the best way to use social media)
  5. The picture he chose to accompany the tweet demonstrates the biggest social media tip of all, much better than I could ever explain it

The Picture!

Four More Years

Why is this picture so powerful?

Cleverly he didn’t show a picture of himself in a suit with all of his team – he chose a picture of himself, eyes closed, without a jacket, with his sleeves rolled up hugging his wife in a loving embrace.

The President knows instinctively that showing himself as human, as a family man, even slightly vulnerable is the way to connect with the majority of people and this is a winning formula.

A great way to win on social media is by allowing yourself to be human, personal and even vulnerable at times.

People are intrigued by people and even if you are running the most boring business in the world you can bring it alive on-line by interacting and showing people who you are, what you are all about and giving them a chance to get to know you.

Social media provides you with that opportunity – grab it!

Greg Canty is a parter of Fuzion

Fuzion provide Social Media Consultancy and Training in Ireland from offices in Cork and Dublin 

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Posted in Social Media, Training, Twitter | 5 Comments »

Snap into it

May 17, 2013
Bueller

Anyone, anyone, anyone?

“Snap out of it” I had to tell myself.

I do a lot of social media training and consultancy both directly for  clients and as part of organised courses for the Enterprise Boards and the Digital Marketing Institute.

I use a suite of materials to deliver this training including some very detailed notes that cover the whole area including blogging, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and some of the other emerging platforms and trends in social media.

In the last few weeks I have found myself delivering a huge volume of training and on this particular day I found myself delivering a module to a client group in the morning and a similar programme in the evening to a group of SME’s as part of training for one of the Enterprise Boards.

Facing into delivering the same material on literally the same day and feeling really tired my motivation level had dropped.

I started to question myself as I drove to the hotel:

Was I getting bored with my own material?  

Would I be able to deliver a good session?

I was wallowing ..

Hold on (big conversation with self!)…you have been crafting your training materials for a few years, you have continuously improved the programme, you not only understand the material intimately but you know how to deliver it in a way that keeps the group engaged and learning – Besides you know you are passionate about this whole area.

This group of SME’s have signed up for the programme, they have given up their evenings to learn about something that could make a big difference for their business and you know you can show them how, in a really practical way.

After giving myself a few virtual slaps in the face and a big kick up the bum I managed to change my gears and open that door – “who wants to tell world about how great their business is?”

We had a great session ..in fact it was the best reaction to a session that I had in the last few weeks and after it I was buzzing.

What you get from any group at a meeting or a presentation is often down to what you bring in the door with you ..your frame of mind, your attitude, your belief, your energy and your enthusiasm.

Snap into it ..

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion with offices in Cork and Dublin offer social media training and consultancy in Ireland

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Posted in Blogging, Facebook, Marketing, Motivation, Personal development, Positivity, Social Media, Training, Twitter | 5 Comments »

Worrier or Warrior?

April 28, 2013

Warrior or worrier

Being in business can be great fun, it can be really satisfying and that overall feeling of being a master of your own destiny just can’t be beaten.

However at times it can be a very lonely place with huge stresses and one where things can be constantly challenging.

One feeling that never leaves me is that feeling of worry ….there is always something to worry about, where will new business come from, how will we pay those bills, how will we sort that problem, how will we improve on the great year that we just had?

That worry niggle is always there to one degree or another. At times you hardly notice, it’s just a tiny little niggle at the back of your mind but at other times the worry monster is bigger and you find yourself waking up and your first thought of the day is..that worry!

That’s when I find the warrior appears, when you have to dig deep, you delve into your reserves, you have to find extra gears inside you and you have to work harder, be more creative and make bolder moves and do new things.

During a typical year I find myself moving from worrier to warrior at regular intervals, ironically with the very most being achieved when the warrior appears!

Are you a warrior or a worrier?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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

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Posted in Motivation, Personal development, Positivity | 8 Comments »

Rewarding Loyalty

April 28, 2013

Table Service

We love going there, the team know us, the manager knows us, there is always a great atmosphere and it is a real treat that we always look forward to.

The little touches are so important, finding you a good place to sit, recommending a special wine, suggesting a new beer, letting you have a sample on the house, asking your opinion about things they are doing…all in all a great place to eat, drink and relax.

The manager was telling us that they were thinking of introducing a “loyalty card” system to reward the regular customers – For every X number of meals you would get one free as well as some other benefits.

The truth is they don’t need a loyalty card system because they always reward our loyalty with their great service.

Instead of giving me one free meal for every ten we order and processing this through a card system, I’m pretty sure that I prefer being looked after in an informal, discretionary way…not because I have “earned” or qualified for my bonus meal.

Give me a drink on the house, a free dessert, a great seat, a warm welcome …it’s better than any card!

Places that don’t know you, might need a system to encourage repeat business and reward loyalty in an official way ….the great places never need a system!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

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

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Posted in Brand Loyalty, Customer Care, Marketing | 18 Comments »

Are you leaving breadcrumbs?

April 20, 2013

Leaving breadcrumbs

“You are doing a lot of work in Dublin these days” she said to me.

“We are, but how did you know that?” I asked

“Oh ..I figured that out from your Facebook posts” she said

That conversation was about five years ago and it was at an event for a client in Dublin – for me it was what I call my “penny drop” moment about social media. At that time I was using Facebook, just like everyone else posting the odd thing about what I was doing and where I was going. In fact, I think I wasn’t that sure what I should have been posting and even how relevant social media might be for business.

It dawned on me that with every post you make people are watching, digesting and forming impressions about you and what you are all about. Often they won’t comment, reply or even “like” your posts, but they are listening and soaking up what you are saying.

From that moment I realised the power of social media and the importance of having a clear idea about what picture of you and your business you want to portray.

Every status update, every tweet, every retweet, every like, every share, every favourite, every discussion, every hashtag and every blog post are all little breadcrumbs that you leave to bring the reader to a place you wanted to take them.

Are you leaving breadcrumbs?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion with offices in Cork and Dublin offer social media training and consultancy in Ireland.

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Posted in Blogging, Facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter, Web Marketing | 12 Comments »

Flying solo or wearing the team shirt?

April 13, 2013

LinkedIn Posting

“I don’t want them as one of my contacts” he said “why should I?”

I was in the middle of a social media training session with the team from one of our clients and it looks like we stumbled upon an awkward moment!

During these sessions I carefully work with the full team and we determine carefully what the objectives are for their social media activity.

The team had agreed that “raising awareness” for what the organisation does was a big issue and they were going to use social media pro-actively as a vehicle to spread the word.

We were in the middle of a practical session on LinkedIn and we discovered that the person whose account we were using for demonstration purposes had a large number of ignored connection requests.

“But I don’t know them”  he said

“Here you have people wanting to connect with you and you are ignoring them” I explained ..”not only are you losing an opportunity to connect and spread the word but you are giving the organisation a bad reputation by ignoring people”

Hmm … The room was silent, he wasn’t budging!

“How about, accept the requests, thank them for connecting and ask them how their business is going ?” ….. “after all, it’s not a marriage proposal” – I was trying my best!

Nope … nothing doing.

I had done enough talking and cajoling for one session so I left it – at the end of the day it is up to each organisation to set a policy for their use of LinkedIn.

The thing with LinkedIn is that people don’t connect with Greg Canty , they connect with Greg Canty, Partner with Fuzion. You and your role in the organisation are locked together as part of your identity.

The team may argue that their LinkedIn presence is their personal space – while this is true they are also wearing the team shirt and should turn up and play for the team.

What do you think ?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Fuzion with offices in Cork and Dublin offer social media training and consultancy in Ireland

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Posted in LinkedIn, PR, Web Marketing | 28 Comments »

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