Come on Retailers!!

Let's not over-complicate this.

There's a recession on. Retailers are fighting to keep us spending.

Upstairs at Marks and Spencer, Long Acre, in London WC2 this morning. A growing queue of customers at the tills. 2 cashiers serving. At least 4 more shop assistants visible sorting out stock, not serving.

People in the queue tutting and getting impatient waiting. I talk to the woman in front of me and we suggest it might be helpful to have more staff serving to meet demand. We ask if there are more cashiers available, and then some appear.

Come on retailers!! This isn't complicated. Look after the customer. You shouldn't have to wait for us to tell you to swap personnel from stock sorting to serving....

Getting Better At Internal Communication

Here's my 90 second take on addressing that age-old problem in every organisation - internal communication

The importance of implementing ideas

There’s a lot of focus in organisations on coming up with great ideas; of ideas for new products and services or new innovations. And that can be challenging, whether you are a one-person freelancer or a team full of people.

But you know what’s harder?

- doing something with those ideas.
- Putting them into action
- Make sure they get done and delivered.

Much of my own business is about coming up with opportunity-creating ideas for clients but I have learnt that it’s all very well devising genius ideas; but everyone needs to focus on actually doing something with them. To launch that website, to change that product, to start that marketing campaign.

Because an idea not implemented has no value.

The Art Of Reinvention

27 years ago – or thereabouts - I was really into Kim Wilde’s music. She was my first pop idol, I had all her records.

So I had a blast from the past yesterday when I walked into the Paul Smith shop at Borough Market and saw one of her 7” record sleeves framed on the wall. According to the shop assistant, this is from ‘Paul’s personal collection’ which is now going on the wall of some of their shops, reinvented as ‘Art’ and being sold to customers at £50 each for a ‘limited edition’ release (if only I’d kept all my Kim Wilde records).

I don’t think it was ever ‘cool’ to like Kim Wilde in the ‘80s, but here in 2009, not only is it cool but the record artwork has been totally reinvented and recycled and positioned - and sold - as art.

Now that is cool!

Meet Macala Wright

Macala Wright is Interactive Marketing Director for 1928 Jewelry in Los Angeles. She writes about social media marketing, Organic SEO and building brand awareness for retailers & fashion companies.

Macala blogs at Fashionably Marketing where she has started posting some book reviews. Each review gives a punchy synopsis of the main points in the book (and a critique of any points she disagrees with). I was delighted she chose to review my book ‘Juggle!’ – it’s a well written review; not only does she create a neat take-away summary she also makes it relevant to ‘her world’ (fashion/marketing) plus she also takes issue with one of mypoints I make. Macala reminds readers that you only need 3 hours to read the book or ‘6 hours if you want to dissect it a bit’. You can read the review here, meanwhile here’s an excerpt:

Juggle! Rethink Work & Reclaim Your Life is a great book for someone who’s unhappy at work, is having trouble with time management or is trying to change a company’s/their own traditional business mindset. Remember the Sex and The City episode where the girls are sitting on the rooftop of Samantha’s new loft in the meatpacking district? She raises her campaign glass to the skyline and says, “See New York! We Have It All!”? Sanders teaches his readers that they can successfully juggle work and “have it all.”

Go The Extra Mile

When you’re looking to retain or win new customers, always go the extra mile in service delivery. Strive to really make a difference in what you do and how you do it.

It doesn’t have to be huge ‘wow factor’ stuff, just small gestures that make that difference and show you care.

Like the bloke who served me in Carphone Warehouse last month and went beyond the call of duty to copy all my contacts from one handset to another.

Like the staff in my local coffee shop who went to fetch coffee for customers from a neighbouring restaurant when their coffee machine broke this week.

Whether you work for a big brand or you are a freelancer, success is about getting a reputation for great service. It’s the antithesis of what I heard from a supplier the other day – ‘it can’t be done’. It’s the antithesis of the bar in the concert venue I went to on Friday who put just four staff on to serve an entire auditorium drinks in a 15 minute interval. It’s about putting a smile on your customer’s face not pissing them off.

It’s a gesture, initiative or approach that leaves your customer impressed – and more importantly – impressed enough that they’ll come back for more.

So this week in all you do, go that extra mile.

'It's About Time'

What's that precious commodity we all have, that can make the difference between success and failure in how we go about business and how we perform our jobs?

There's more tactics for living 'The Juggle Lif'e in my new book.