My parents brought me up to use my manners.  To say please and thank you when required.  Now it’s my turn to teach my own children the same – sometimes I feel like a broken record but I will not give up!  I believe society has forgotten their manners. What do you think?

On a basic level, saying “thank you” communicates that you acknowledge the other person.  If we’re talking email correspondence there’s a lot of advice that discourages writing “thank you” emails because they contribute to email overload. I believe some emails require a “thank you” as it avoids the recipient wondering if you received their email and also completes the transaction.

But saying “thank you” is way more than that.  It’s an emotional act which connects one person to another.  Saying “thank you” doesn’t just acknowledge someone’s effort, thoughtfulness, intent, or action. It acknowledges the person with whom you’re interacting.

When a brand new client sent me a “thank you” email the other day after I sent him a reminder email to send me content for his blog I nearly fell off my chair, not from shock but from appreciation.

Acknowledging other people is critical and it’s something that can either make or break a relationship whether business or personal.

Don’t dear argue with me that we’re too busy or that it’s just not something you do to exchange a pleasantry. It doesn’t take long to say “thank you,” but it does take caring.  Saying “thank you” sincerely feels good. Not just to the person receiving it, but also to the person offering it. It’s sometimes forgotten after you’ve made a request that behind each request is a person.

Giving thanks for something you’ve received, whether it’s an object, an experience or something intangible, is something that just needs to be done with no excuses. The form, timing and details are rarely as important as the simple act.

Thank you to you all for taking the time to read my latest blog.  It is much appreciated.

If you’d like to know more about Quintessential Concierge’s services, contact Letitia on 021 898 661 or email her on letitia@quintessentialconcierge.co.nz for a FREE introductory meeting to discuss your requirements.

Today was the first time in my business career that my professionalism was questioned and it was like having a stake driven into my heart.

From time to time I scan the local paper for any job advertisements that may apply and whether our services could assist the organisation searching to fill a role. This particular job advertisement asked for contact to be made via an admin@ email address. No other contact details were provided i.e. phone number or contact name of the person taking enquiries.

In my initial contact email to the organisation I mentioned that I would follow up in a few days. As the advert didn’t have any contact details other than an email address I took the initiative of finding out more about the organisation and viewed their website where I found their phone number.

On phoning the number the receptionist answered and I asked to speak with the person that is taking enquiries regarding the job advertisement. At that point I was told this person was unavailable. I was expecting an offer of a call back but this didn’t come, instead I got asked whether I wanted to email a follow up, which I accepted. The email offered was different to the one in the advertisement, this time it was an info@ email.

Following my email I received a call from the owner of the organisation offering her feedback on my proposal. She said she felt that my emailing the info@ email was unprofessional and that all enquiries should have gone to the admin@ email address instead. I must admit I was taken a back by this and felt it necessary to explain the steps of my approach and suggested that it was imperative that the staff member answering the organisations phones be informed of correct protocols when dealing with enquiries. This fell on deaf ears.

I believe this owners approach was very rude and showed a complete lack of understanding of acceptable customer service ethics. I will certainly be the elephant in this situation. I will never forget this experience, the owners name or the organisation.

What I’ve learnt from this experience:

• Not every organisation you approach is a good fit for your business – they will have different ways of doing business and different ideas of how a business should be run. Don’t change to please them. If you are more often than not receiving positive feedback, you must be doing something right.
• It is very important when advertising a job that you supply appropriate contact details for those potential candidates that wish to enquire further about the role i.e. contact name and phone number.
• Use this time to double check your own systems and processes and tweak anything that needs improvement.
• Whenever you approach an organisation with feedback, do it gracefully and respectfully and always make sure the feedback you are giving is actually something they should improve on and not a process your organisation is lacking internally.
• Always thank the person that is providing the feedback, even if you don’t agree with their opinion.
• If you get questioned about your professionalism – make sure to take it on board and think about the feedback thoroughly. If you disagree with the feedback, take it on the chin and remember all the positive comments and testimonials you’ve received from your clients that have never questioned your professionalism.

We were contracted by a team in the initial phases of constructing a dairy company back in May for a two week period, this then become a six month contract with my last day being yesterday.

We were engaged to provide the development and implementation of administrative systems and tools and work with the team through their growth phase.

The team have and continue to do some great work and I am very proud to have been a part of their achievements to date. I will never forget the teams infectious enthusiasm and undeniably exuberant organisational philosophy.

As this door closes, another one will open. So this isn’t farewell. This is, until we meet again!

Many conversations I had with people would feel very demanding and I would instantly criticise myself for not registering with their enthusiasm for the topic of discussion. I would also feel unworthy of being in their presence because I didn’t have this overwhelming urge to contribute to the conversation.

During my working life I’ve been lucky enough to have employers that invested in me and sent me on training courses.  Many of these would involve a session on personality traits.  I would never relate to one particular trait and would feel pressure to become something I wasn’t.  Although, the trainers would say ‘everyone is a little bit of each trait’, I wouldn’t feel I was strongly one or the other.

There have been many experiences during my adulthood that have helped me to accept me for me and remove the feelings of inferiority, however it wasn’t until recently I came across as article on introversion.  It was a one of those ‘lightbulb’ moments!

This article explained the following two points that got me very excited, and they allowed me to reiterate my acceptance for myself.

1. That one-on-one interaction with people is tiring for introverts (introversion is an energy thing, not a ‘shyness’ thing like most people think).
2. Introverts prefer to only contribute to a conversation when they have something meaningful to add.  Small talk makes us squirm!

After reading this article my mind wandered to times in the past when I’ve been in social situations and felt this way. Although I have very much immersed myself within networking groups with the likes of Venus and Chamber of Commerce I think I will always find it an effort to connect and have to push myself so it doesn’t adversely effect my business.

One of the positives of being an introvert is that we are very good listeners which makes for great relationship building with our clients.  You may know that hearing and listening are two different things.  Hearing requires no effort, listening on the other hand means paying close attention to what the other person is saying.  My husband still argues I don’t listen to him!!

If this articles topic resonates with you, here are a few tips that may help you with the idiosyncrasies of being an introvert:

• Always prepare – do your research on the person or group you plan to meet.
• Connect – send a connection request to the person you are meeting with beforehand.  This helps with getting to know them before your first actual meeting.
• Time out – give yourself a few minutes on your own to recharge.

If you’re an introvert, get in touch and let me know the tips you use to get the best out of your day.

Brought to you by Letitia Buckle x

www.quintessentialconcierge.co.nz

By utilising Quintessential Concierge you can reduce the need for large investment in office overheads and staff. Outsourcing to a personal assistant can help with living and working more independently, reducing the stress and burnout and it could make you more productive in the long run. Not only it is cost-effective it is also more efficient by remotely streamlining your operations.

Find out how we can assist you by clicking here.

Brought to you by Letitia Buckle x

www.quintessentialconcierge.co.nz

I recently took on a contract that involves me leaving home at 7.15am in the morning and not returning until 6.00pm at night.  In the last few weeks I have continued at home burning the midnight oil and the effects have hit me.  I have also experienced terrible working-mum guilt for not having the time to interact with my family other than a few short conversations over meal times.  If there are other mums out there feeling the same about the amount of time not spent with your children, we don’t need to any more!  We can be kinder to ourselves as a new study from Harvard reports that having a mother who works not only doesn’t do children any harm, it actually increases their daughters’ future prospects for career success.

The survey of over 50,000 adults in 25 developed nations worldwide found that in every single country, women with working mothers and entrepreneurial mums performed better in the workplace.  They earned more money and rose to higher positions than did women who grew up with stay-at-home mothers.

And the sons’ don’t miss out either, while the “working mother effect” didn’t affect sons’ earning power or job positions, the men who grew up with working mothers displayed one important different: They spent twice as much time, on average, handling domestic and child-care duties as did men who grew up with non-working mothers.  I say, a couple of positives there, don’t you?

After months of friends and colleagues telling me I should take on contractors, I can no longer ignore them.  I am excited to announce that Quintessential Concierge is growing and three new faces will become a part of the team.

Some of you may ask why I chose to wait so long to build a support team.  It was a mixture of reasons: The idea of relinquishing control, thinking that no one else could do the job like me, trying to uphold the reputation I’ve built and mostly being fearful of the whole process. I would feel like a fake when encouraging clients to outsource work to free up their time and I wasn’t doing the same.  I have chosen to work smarter, not harder and I do believe going forward I will get those blissful weekdays back.

I look forward to introducing you to the new additions to the team next month through my newsletter and I’ll also be doing some in-person introductions in July.

Brought to you by Letitia Buckle x

www.quintessentialconcierge.co.nz

• Put yourselves first:  Find time to exercise at least three time a week. Get up earlier in the morning or go after work whilst one parent looks after the children and gets the dinner ready.  Take turns in doing this as it is a proven fact that exercise makes you happier and more positive.
• Tag team with your partner: If you want more support ask for it.  It’s all about balance.  If you feel overwhelmed by life ask for help.
• Be organised:  Create your own strategies to keep everything organised. Keep a diary and to-do list. I’ve just created a chalkboard organiser on my kitchen wall.  This is great for the kids to doodle on too!

Do you know someone that needs a special shout out for being a superstar?  Let us know!

Brought to you by Letitia Buckle x

www.quintessentialconcierge.co.nz

Outsourcing is not a new phenomenon but despite the positive advantages many are still speculative about its value and how it can work for them.

Last month’s blog was titled ‘Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should’.  If you missed it click here to give it a read.  It explains how unless a business owner frees up their time and focuses on core activities by delegating everyday tasks it can be detrimental to their health, let alone how their business may be effected.

There are many tasks you can outsource and here is a sample list:

1. Personal Assistant Services, including email management
2. Promoting and obtaining opportunities for publicity
3. Reception Cover
4. Project Manager
5. Taking Board minutes
6. Preparing agendas
7. Data entry
8. Phone answering service
9. Preparing correspondence and documents
10. Collating reports
11. Preparing mail merge and email distribution lists
12. Arranging meetings with clients
13. Personal diary management
14. Deliveries
15. Filing
16. Social Media maintenance, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Linkedin
17. Social Media page creation
18. Website Design and Build
19. Website maintenance
20. Newsletter campaigns
21. Planning seminars, community meetings, presentations, social functions etc
22. Arranging speakers
23. Preparing flyers and marketing material
24. Arranging catering
25. Arranging entertainment
26. Organising venues
27. Setting up audio/visual equipment
28. Liaising with third-party providers
29. Human Resources
30. Research

There isn’t a single solution that will work for everybody.  All businesses are different, with varying demands, and everyone has different skill sets – but there will almost certainly be some tasks that can be effectively outsourced, giving you more time to concentrate on growing your business.

Make your personal and business lives more productive, successful and rewarding. Be smart by building yourself a team of professionals that help you achieve the best outcome possible.

If you do this you can find yourself with:

• Increased flexibility
• Reduced stress
• Faster completion of tasks that you may have struggled with in the past
• Better business growth – or at least time to plan for it
• More time to spend on activities outside the business

What are you going to outsource today?

Brought to you by Letitia Buckle x

www.quintessentialconcierge.co.nz

Many of my clients will tell you that by engaging my services I’ve enabled them to focus on what they do best and less of what they either don’t do well or don’t enjoy.  They can maintain a focus on the higher level tasks, such as, setting targets, planning strategies, and evaluating performance, but this can only be done if you avoid becoming bogged down in the daily administrative chores.

And from a business perspective, having insufficient time to plan, monitor and concentrate on higher-level activities, can lead to poor growth/stagnation and impact on customer services, sales and marketing, budgeting and many other aspects of the business.  You may also find yourself:

• Working late into the night
• Getting frustrated spending hours doing tasks you don’t enjoy, or lack strategic value to the business
• Feeling isolated running the business on your own and wanting someone to bounce ideas around with
• Feeling frustrated or even angry that you are working yourself into the ground but still failing to generate the traction or results you’d hoped for.

Outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant can help you live and work independently.  Reducing the stress and burnout.  And it could make you more productive in the long run.

Use a Virtual Assistant to do things like:

• run reports
• type up documents
• schedule appointments
• complete research
• organise travel arrangements
• social media management
• newsletter campaigns
• diary management
• screen emails
• make call on your behalf
• handle other projects as needed

You may be aware of the Comparative Advantage Principle – one of the oldest principles in economics, developed by British economist David Ricardo in the early 19th century.  The principle explains why you should outsource the production of lower-value services, even if you can produce them more efficiently yourself.  Even if you’re faster or better at getting a routine task done it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good use of your time.  I’m not going to go any further into the details of this principle – there is an abundance of literature available for those who are interested.  And it makes for an interesting read.  Of course, if you are time poor, you will be thinking, “how on earth would I find time to do that?” And therein lies the problem – and recognising this is the first step towards finding a solution: breaking the cycle.  It is easy to feel that there is no time for stepping back, evaluating the business, formulating strategies for growth – but these are essential aspects of running a business and it is vital to allocate some time for this.  In essence, you need to ditch the small tasks.  Taking care of the details of running an office can hijack your entire day.

Here are some common objections I hear on working with a Virtual Assistant:

• I’m not sure on the virtual nature – so you’re used to dealing with people face-to-face.  Many of our day-to-day activities now involve dealing with people by phone, Skype or e-mail.  Working with a Virtual Assistant is no different.
• I’m not exactly sure what I would have them do – the most important thing is to think about yourself first.  What are the activities you do well and which add the most value to your organisation? Write these down.  Everything not on your list is a candidate for delegation.  Stay focused on what you do best!
• I’m concerned they will be disconnected from my business – our lives are very virtual these days. Salespeople are on the road all day, companies have departments in other buildings and entire divisions in other cities.  Schedule a weekly call with your VA to make sure you are on the same page, use Skype to replicate face-to-face time and invite them to be a part of work events and meetings.
• I’m worried about the access required to our systems – this is a legitimate concern.  Most modern systems provide a tiered access.  Start your VA at entry level and then increase access when you’ve gained the confidence required.
• I don’t know how many hours the work will take - most employers don’t and this is why we default to a forty-hour work week when hiring employees.  Write down all the things that you would like to delegate.  Get the tasks/projects out of your head and onto paper.  Now estimate how long each task will take.  Don’t assume it will take your VA as long as it takes you.  In most cases your VA will be much more efficient than you.
• How would I monitor whether my VA is really doing the work – this is a fair objection, but how do you know whether or not your full-time employee is really doing the work?  Focus on the results your VA achieves.  Do status calls or reports or you could leverage project software to track results.
• I’m not sure this will improve my business – remember, those at the top of the food chain focus on key targets and use others to spend time on the non-specialist tasks.  They concentrate on the higher value activities, for example, searching out new opportunities or meeting with high-value clients.  If you see this as just an expense, you’ll never take your business to the next level.  You can only do so much.

Are you ready to take the next step in freeing yourself from tasks that make you unproductive?

Brought to you by Letitia Buckle x

www.quintessentialconcierge.co.nz

Have you ever been in a situation where you’ve said something a little inappropriate to a client? Was the situation rectifiable?  Or did you lose that client because of it?

I believe in maintaining great business relationships with my clients. Throughout your list of clients there will be various different personality types and this determines how you should deal with them.

You will find that sometimes they communicate differently to you. Your job is to find a method to conduct yourself appropriately during your interactions with them so as to build a lasting business relationship.

From my previous experience working as Personal Assistant to the CEO and Mayor at Waitomo District Council I learnt to be very resilient, not only with the environment I was working in, but with the different types of people that make up the industry. During my time there I worked with the management team and Council on a daily basis and the many differences of opinion meant that it was sometimes a challenge keeping everyone happy.

Whenever I meet someone for the first time I consider what makes that person tick.  These are a few questions that run through my mind that help me gauge what method I will take in potential future interactions:

Are they an introvert or extrovert?
Are they humorous or serious?
Are they a details person or quite easy going?

Once you’ve established a few personality traits of that person you can then better understand how they operate and provide a more effective solution going forward.

Important things to remember when meeting a person for the first time:

• Listen – let them tell you their experience.  Don’t interrupt.
• Build trust.
• Be interested in them.

People do business with people because they choose to, not because they have to. Be the type of person you want to meet!

“To effectively communicate, we must realise that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.” ~ Tony Robbins

Brought to you by Letitia Buckle x

www.quintessentialconcierge.co.nz