As part of the leaving process it is important to reflect and learn.  Could your organisation actually deliver what the client wanted? And is your branding and image in the market meeting clients’ expectations?

Quintessential Concierge is a relatively small business, we don’t speak at huge institutional gatherings, don’t do a lot of marketing, and don’t have a huge wining-and-dining budget. Our growth comes entirely from word-of-mouth and referrals. It’s always good to consider your branding and image in the market and whether this is meeting client’s expectations. But also consider that if you have a solid presence in your market segment, changing the way you do business could alienate your other clients.

If it’s only one client on occasion that has left, and you like your market niche and feel you’re meeting the goals of the vast majority of your clients – well, tell yourself you were lucky to have had the business “temporarily.” Losing a big client is never fun, and much less than ideal for your bottom line, but it’s as much a part of business as landing a dream client. And it’s sometimes the fallout of staying true to your style and strengths.

What to do next:

• Remain professional at all times
• Keep calm and stay focused
• Look for the positives
• Before finalising work ask your client the reason for leaving
• Ask yourself whether you understood their expectations, and if not, whether this was preventable
• Evaluate whether your organisation could or should even try to meet their expectations
• And ask yourself if this is part of a larger pattern, or just an isolated incident

Remember to also:

• Keep in contact with your client (if the relationship is amicable) – you never know whether their circumstances will change in the future
• Don’t take it personally
• Reflect, learn and move on

Sometimes having a client leave is a blessing in disguise – freeing up your time to take on someone new and you never know what and who’s just around the corner.  I recently had a client return after leaving due to a change in circumstances and it was lovely receiving these comments from her the other day: “Many thanks and good work again – we make a very good team”.
What doesn’t break you just makes you stronger!

The ideal would be to always surround yourself with clients that are positive, hold the same high standards as you, are happy and share the same emotional bandwidth, but this is not always possible when you first start out. If you do find yourself in an ideal situation, you will then find your days are much less destructive, you’ll love what you do more and you’ll have more time and energy to seek those opportunities out that you love.

So how do you recognise a good client over a bad one?

1. You love to work with them – You get excited when correspondence arrives from them about a prospective project or when you get a chance to visit their offices.
2. You believe in their organisation and what it stands for – if they are doing and saying things that don’t match your beliefs, it’s pretty hard to get excited about them or refer them to others.
3. They are open-minded - to new ideas and potential improvements.
4. You and your point of view are trusted and respected; your expertise is appreciated and valued – we all know those types that use you for your information and then move on thinking they can find a what they’re looking for elsewhere.  It’s a two way street and loyalty is a biggie.
5. They value your time and respect your terms of work - we all deserve some time out to spend with our families and recharge.  After hours and weekends may be non-negotiable to you.
6. They are very happy to shout out to others about your performance - if this is not the case you’ve got to question the relationship.  Why are they continuing to use your services but don’t see the benefit in telling other people about you?  By doing so can only bring both parties more opportunities, testimonials and referrals.
7. They know not to hold incessant meetings - they have a purpose for each meeting they hold and consider your time when inviting you along to contribute.
8. They don’t come with ‘horror stories’ – good clients don’t have a selection of stories about inadequacies, issues and struggles they’ve experienced with other suppliers/clients.
9. They stick to one idea at a time - we all juggle business ideas and that’s healthy, but having too many at a time can not be disastrous for them but hard for you to keep up with the constant goalpost shifting.

Remember, good clients are great to have so nurture each relationship and make sure they know they matter. A good relationship only works if both parties are on the same page. If you think the relationship is worth saving but it’s gone off track slightly, there may still be time to rectify the situation by sitting down and having a good old chat. If not, you may need to consider a client purge.

I believe one of the hardest thing for our culture to do is ask for help.  Us Kiwi’s are known for our ‘can do’ attitude and most times we would rather hold onto our pride than hire someone else to complete a job for us. We feel ashamed at the thought of needing help from others and most times it’s seen as a personal failure.

I’ve touched on the subject in a previous post Just Because You Can Do Something Doesn’t Mean You Should and felt it was timely coming into a new year to remind those that felt overwhelmed in 2016 it may be time to make some positive changes in 2017.

Do you find yourself having a hard time asking for help?  Here are some common reasons why people delay seeking help:

• You have a certain way of doing things
• You don’t want to pay for things when you can do it yourselves
• You don’t know who to ask for help and how to get started
• You don’t like change

If you insist on doing everything yourself, you will never have enough time to do everything properly and the quality of the work and your health will likely suffer.

Focus on your strengths and let others do the rest.

Remember change in not necessary a bad thing, we’ve helped many of our clients as they’ve taken their first steps into outsourcing their work to us.  Of course, those steps we take together and relationships are built along the way. We love being a part of our clients successes and seeing their lives and health change for the better.

What are you waiting for?  Contact Letitia NOW on 021 898 661 or email her on letitia@quintessentialconcierge.co.nz to book an appointment to discuss what you need help with and how she can make a positive difference in your life.

It’s so important to understand, to be successful in business you need to leverage your top strengths whilst being aware of your weaknesses and outsource tasks that you’re no good at.

You must focus more on what you and only you can do best.  Tasks where you add the most value to your business are the only tasks you should be doing.  Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should!

When you outsource to a Administrative Consultant you are delivering value to your business and just think about what you are saving from not having to hire a full-time employee with the benefits they’re entitled.

Yes, outsourcing your marketing and administration may cost you $500 per week, however by spending that $500 per week you’re freeing up your time so it can be spent on higher-value tasks.  Outsource the production of lower-value services, even if you can produce them more efficiently yourself. Even if your faster or better at getting a routine task done doesn’t mean it’s a good use of your time. Ditch the small tasks. Taking care of the details of running an office can hijack your day.

You may be brilliant at creating ideas, but your downfall is organisation and project management.  You know you must utilise social media and online marketing for your business but have no idea where to start and no time to think about it.  You want time to grow your business, get out and network and make sales but you’re bogged down by routine administration tasks.

By hiring a Administration Consultant you’ll save time, bring in expertise you may not have, get things done quicker and increase your revenue.  So…….is it an extravagant expense?  It sounds like an investment you can’t afford not to take.

What do you think?  Is hiring a Administrative Consultant something you’d like to explore?

Contact Letitia on 021 898 661 or email her on letitia@quintessentialconcierge.co.nz for a FREE introductory meeting to discuss your requirements.

These days, if your business hasn’t got a presence on the internet (an online presence), it can be hard to know you exist.

What is an “online presence”?  An online presence is any existence of an individual or business that can be found via an online search. An example is a business who has a LinkedIn profile, Facebook page and or Website.

In August 2016, Stuff published an article that referenced to MYOB data which showed 49% of small businesses in New Zealand are not online.  In 2014, 59% were not online and in 2013 66% were not online.

My question is WHY do 49% of business still not have a presence on the internet?  It is that they feel overwhelmed at the work that’s involved?  Do they feel their business are profitable enough without it?

Your audience is not just the people that are walking past your front door anymore. Having a website is just the start and only the beginning.  Once you’ve got the website, that is up to date and mobile-friendly then add to that social media to be noticed. There is a chance that someone will come across your Facebook page whilst scrolling through their posts because a friend of a friend has LIKED it. 

The benefits outweigh the negatives – experience more customer inquiries, customers will be able to do business with you easier, potential customers can contact you more efficiently and you may even notice an increase in revenue.

Make sure you are keeping up with the times!

If you don’t have time to set up or manage your online presence, Quintessential Concierge can help.  Contact Letitia on 021 898 661 or email her on letitia@quintessentialconcierge.co.nz for a FREE introductory meeting to discuss your requirements.

Stop!  Stop accepting the excuses as it may be affecting your business, hugely.  Are you writing off bad debt, receiving part payments, finding it difficult meeting your tax commitments on time and devoting time following up overdue accounts and even delaying your own payments to your own creditors because of it?

I learnt over the last week that a personal contact of mine is now bankrupt for the second time!  I am not privy of all the details, however it turns out this is due to struggling to collect outstanding debt.  Debt collection isn’t an easy task but it could either make or break a business and in this case the business owners clearly didn’t think to try something different and put steps in place to prevent the same situation happening again!

The sad reality is that there are people that seem to have no integrity or morales and will make every excuse under the sun as to why they’re unable to pay the bill or worse still, they’ll happily ignore phone calls, delete your emails and spend the money they owe you on something else.

What can you do to protect yourself?

Try the following suggestions and you’ll be on your way:

• Try to arrange up-front payments before commencing any work, when you can.  This is even more important if you haven’t built up a relationship with a client or the client has not come from a referral.
• STOP doing work for customers that haven’t paid their outstanding debt.
• Be prepared before contacting the customer about the debt.  Have copies of invoices and statements at your finger tips.
• Find out WHY your client won’t pay you – is it because they don’t have the money, isn’t happy with your service or do they wish to spend the money they owe you on something else.
• Keep all correspondence and note down detail of phone conversations.
• Offer a payment plan.
• Don’t get angry with your customers.  ALWAYS behave professionally.
• Monitor your debtors list and try not to have debt go outside 90 days.  The longer you leave the debt the tougher it is to get.
• Outsource the task of debt collection and have the pain taken away.  It’s not on the favourite job list of a business owner and sometimes it is better that some one else does it.  It may also protect the business relationship you have with your customer.
• When chasing the debt try an email first, if you don’t receive a response make a phone call.  Your making personal contact and this may maintain the relationship.
• Consider whether this customer is the RIGHT customer for you.  Are you spending time chasing their debt when you could be concentrating on finding a client that is a better fit for your business and pays on time.
• NEVER complain about a non-paying client to others — especially on social networks. It’s not professional and it is unlikely to result in a positive outcome.

If you need some assistance with your slow payers, please call Quintessential Concierge today on 021 898 661 or email on letitia@quintessentialconcierge.co.nz.

All to often meetings become an inefficient slog but this doesn’t have to be the case.  A well organised meeting needs a well-written agenda.  By sticking to a detailed, yet flexible agenda this can create a streamlined and focused meeting that meets your goals in an efficient amount of time.

We have seen some humdingers!!  For example, those agenda items no one really understands and never get discussed but remain on the agenda every month.  It is important to realise an agenda is an effective governance tool that should meet legislative compliance requirements.

Are you wondering what those legislative compliance requirements are?  Click here to be directed to the Companies Office where you’ll find a great resource that explains exactly what is required.

We sit on many board’s in the role of minute taker and have unfortunately seen directors making inconsistent decisions and discussing the same issues repeatedly.  Find some tips below that we’d suggest when trying to eliminate these issues:

• satisfy all legislative requirements – remember the link above to the Companies Office.
• provide constructive guidance for more effective meetings, and accountability of those responsible for progressing the actions and decisions made at meetings.
• set-up a Resolutions Register that can instantly improve your boards decision-making effectiveness and strategic perspective.
• set up templates that will improve board performance and satisfy mandatory requirements

I work with many different organisations, so often I’m changing my phone greeting many times in the space of a week.

Throughout my career I’ve endured extensive customer service training that reinforced the importance of answering the phone in a professional manner, that not only portrays the values of the organisation but also provides a great first and long lasting impression for potential and current clients alike.

All too often I experience what I believe is unsatisfactory telephone etiquette.  Taking care of your customers over the telephone and making them feel well informed and appreciated is essential. How you interact with clients and business associates over the phone will either portray you in a positive light or a negative one.

Here are some suggested do and don’ts to help you to achieve outstanding telephone etiquette:

Do’s

• When answering the phone it is important not to allow it to ring more than three times.
• The phone should be answered with a friendly greeting such as: “welcome”, “hello”, “good morning”, “good afternoon” etc.  Following the greeting the person should then give the name of the organisation and his or her name i.e. “welcome to Quintessential Concierge, this is Letitia”.  I personally am not a fan of ” good afternoon, {organisation name}, Jane speaking.  Of course your speaking, you’ve answer the phone!!  I prefer, “this is {name}”.
• Smile!  The caller will hear it in your voice.
• If you must put the caller on hold, ask for their permission first.
• If you need to transfer the call, inform the caller beforehand and always check that the person to whom the call is being transferred is actually available.
• Ask the caller for their name.  This shows you have taken an interest in them.
• Use the hold button if necessary.  Never allow callers to overhear conversations being held nearby.
• The caller may have given you information about the reason for their call.  Relay this information to the person you’ve transferred the call to.  The caller doesn’t want to repeat themselves.

Dont’s

• Under no circumstances should you answer the telephone whilst eating, chewing or drinking.
• Don’t leave the caller on hold for long periods of time.  If their inquiry cannot be answered quickly, offer to phone them back with the information.
• Don’t leave the caller in silence.  Always discuss with them the process you are taking to answer their inquiry.
• Never, ever say the words “I don’t know”.  They have phoned your organisation to find answers and if you don’t know those answers you should be doing all you can to find them out.
• End the conversation with a positive closure such as “have a great day”.

The way in which you deal with your customers on the phone may be effecting the growth of your business.  What are your expectations when it comes to telephone etiquette?  Give it a thought when you greet your next caller.

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.

It is good to receive both positive and negative feedback about your business so that feedback can be used to improve your systems and processes, make the necessary changes (if required) and or pat yourself on the back that you’re doing things right. You must also have an approach to respond to these comments in a consistent and appropriate manner.

Recently a client received several negative comments that could only be described as unsubstantiated nonsense, however we dealt with them the same as we would any other comment, with professionalism and grace.

Here are a few tips that we follow when responding to negative comments on our client’s Facebook pages:

1. Always Respond – don’t ignore the comments thinking they’ll go away.  It will only make the situation worse.  Respond quickly as news spreads like wild fire on social media, preferably within hours (or less).
2. Set The Tone - the tone of your replying posts will direct the nature of future conversations. Always be polite and professional and focus on the topic. Never get aggressive you have a reputation to up hold.

   For some specific examples of appropriate responses to complaints, click here to view them on our tools page on our website.

3. Contact the Poster Privately – make sure to attempt to contact the poster privately.  This can be done by sending a private message to the poster (this can be done via Twitter or Facebook). If the poster is an existing client, pick up the phone and speak with them or arrange a meeting to discuss the situation.  Sometimes the personal touch can elevate the problems.
4. Ban or Block Them – if you have made all the attempts imaginable but the poster continues to cause trouble, consider banning or blocking them.  This is an easy process both on Facebook and Twitter.
5. Get Additional Help – instead of spending your productive time on dealing with these issues, contact a virtual assistant that provides social media management services.  This ensures a consistent approach.

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

By outsourcing the production of lower-value services, even if you can produce them more efficiently yourself. Even if your faster or better at getting a routine task done doesn’t mean it’s a good use of your time. Ditch the small tasks. Taking care of the details of running an office can hijack your day.

There are some instances when you need to let go of control and get help in your business. If you have no interest in bookkeeping and no understanding about how to keep the right kind of financial records it’s time to ask a professional to help. Regardless of what type of business you’re in and no matter how tight your budget, creating a good first impression is critical. Your branding needs to look exceptional from day one. Have your logo, business card and website designed by some one that knows what they’re doing. If you have find social media confusing but realise it’s a huge part of marketing these days, source the right person to manage it for you.

To determine what to outsource, create a list of tasks that shouldn’t require your input and start with just a few hours of support each week. Bringing a virtual assistant on board can be a significant factor in keeping your stress levels under control and make a huge contribution to business growth.

A virtual assistant can help with things like:

• run reports
• type up documents
• follow up debtors
• send invoices
• schedule appointments
• complete research
• organise travel arrangements
• social media management
• newsletter campaigns
• diary management
• organise events

By building a ‘circle of influence’ and efficiently using this circle it can 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
• stress reduction
• tasks being completed that aren’t your strong point
• growing your business
• freeing up your time

What are you waiting for? Write that list and contact Letitia on 021 898 661 or email her on letitia@quintessentialconcierge.co.nz for a FREE introductory meeting to discuss your requirements.