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Customer Service from an Esso Store Manager

Posted in Entrepreneurialism on July 5th 2010 | No Comments

Bad Esso Customer Service

Esso - Home of Customer Care

To get a true feeling of the whole situation you need to first know some history, so the wife and I had just been in EuroDisney for 3 days with our our two children. The time was circa. 10:30pm and we still had over two hours left to drive from Ashford in Kent to Northampton. It had been a long few days and it still wasn’t over, so we were pretty tired and fed up. Nonetheless we needed petrol and some energy food so we stopped off at the M20 services just outside of Ashford, on route to London.

I started to fill the car up whilst my wife went in to pay, I pulled the nozzle out of the pump and the counter reset to 14p and not to zero. So I waited a moment and nothing happened, in the end deciding to place the fuel nozzel back on the pump and pull it off again. This time I setarted to fill up with petrol. After a short while my wife came out of the shop and asked what drink I wanted, so I took the opportunity to tell her about the incident with the pump and that we only need to pay for the actual fuel delivery.

Once the car was full I waited whilst the children slept in the back, and waited, and kept watching her in discussion at the till and waited some more. Eventually I saw who was clearly a manager come over from the main services, and I waited some more. In the end I thought this coudl not all be over 14p, so I went in to see what was going on. It turned out that a cashier had accidently charged someone else for our fuel and they were trying to rectify the mistake. After some 20 minutes they had that resolved and were ready to serve us, with our petrol and small banquet of food to get us through the journey home.

The Esso store manager then demonstrated his highly atuned customer service skills, in a rather sarcastic voice, “For the sake of just 14p to mind if I just charge you it?”. So I replied stating we had been standing around now for almost half an hour and have another two hours drive home, why not throw in a £7 pillow for our daughter to help her sleep on the journey home and call it quits, to which he replied “No, but I will sell you one.” “In that case no it is not alright if you overcharge me 14p for my petrol.”

To get this right, we were left waiting whilst they tried to correct a mistake they had made on another customer, and we were then asked if they could overcharge us for our petrol? If the tables were turned I would have apologised for keeping our customer waiting (lesson #1) and if it was a pain to try and amend the charge in the till for the 14p would have offered to push a couple of bars of chocolate through for free as guesture to make up for the inconvenience (lesson #2). I wouldn’t have had the audaity to ask if the customer would mind if I overcharged them, it just isn’t right!

This has to be Customer Service at it’s absolute best surely?

Be Proud of your Price and Service

Posted in Entrepreneurialism on April 9th 2010 | 1 Comment

As I come into work this morning I had an email reply from a proposal I’d prepared for a prospective customer of one of my businesses. The business itself isn’t important, but the prospects approach to me says a lot of things about their approach to business.

The proposal I had drafted clearly demonstrated some time savings we could give to their business, and based on some figures they had supplied me I could also demonstrate a small cost saving too. Not a lot but still a cost saving. The time savings for their business though would be potentially very significant, which to me can be worth more than money itself!

This morning I opened my email and, edited to protect the innocent, stated along the lines of “Your proposal is not viable for our business, but if you half your monthly charges and we will not pay any setup charges we’ll give it a go.”

I was rather shocked by this, even with my bias opinion and complete and utter belief in the service of my company, our solution was a no-brainer for them. Nonetheless, I feel I have something to share about this experience, and one thing that I have previous spoken about regards Getting your Prices Right.

Firstly, how does this person value their time in their business? I’ll give you two examples, the first being an employee scenario of a manager I employ had trouble delegating their work out instead holding onto everything. My response was that for as long as you don’t train someone else up to do your job I cannot promote you any higher in the organisation! What about with the business owner, if you don’t value your time and take steps to allow you to work on your business instead of in your business (same-old same-old) then you are not going anywhere and you’ll always be a lifestyle business. That is fine if that is what you want, but when the time comes to retire if your business completely relies on you then you are not getting much of a retirement fund from the sale of your business. Again, I have covered this in the past regarding Whether Your Business Needs You.

I naturally decided to decline the kind offer to supply the service for half price, because I’m proud of our service and I’m proud of our price. I have researched our competition and I know our position and share of the market. I know the SWOT of what we provide and take that into account, and so long as you know where your business stands don’t let yourself be beaten up on price. At the end of the day you need to make a profit to be in business, and you should be proud of that.

If all you have to compete on is price in your business then you potentially have a problem, don’t let yourself get into that situation.

Why Can’t BusinessLink Keep Good Advisers?

Posted in Entrepreneurialism on March 19th 2010 | 1 Comment

This is a question that has been on my mind for a while, but I’m not alone. It’s also a different question to ask because I know a few people who work for BusinessLink and as an organisation they provide a lot of very valuable services but they fail to follow one of the most fundamental rules they preach. They don’t just stick to what they are good at, they try and do everything!

Have you ever spent time looking through the BusinessLink website? If not, do so, it contains a huge wealth of information and resources that is great for any business of any size. Whether you have questions on employment, some statutory compliance issues, how to raise finance, you name it and if it is related to running a business you’re likely to find some help on their website.

What about grants and other funding options, if you are looking for matched funding for capital expenditure or staff training, BusinessLink should be the first place to look as they usually have their finger on the pulse of what money is being handed out to help business by the Government.
That’s it guys, you should stop there! Do yourselves a favour and stick to what you are good at. Providing practical business support in the workplace is not your strong point because as an organisation you simply do not provide an attractive enough proposition to attract and keep really good business advisors. The problem is that these really good ones are either already running their own successful businesses, or have setup their own consultancy firms providing business advice after either selling their successful business or putting a management structure in to keep a residual income.

This isn’t just my opinion I’m afraid to say, it’s a common perception and it is one that BusinessLink are aware of and have tried many times to resolve without success. A conversation with a senior manager asked me what I would suggest to recruit a better calibre of advisor and I couldn’t answer the question, because I couldn’t think of one good reason why a really successful Entrepreneur would want to become employed by an organisation that is pulled from left to right by changing Government policies and budgets, which has a bad reputation for offering out of date advice, when if the Entrepreneur wanted to become a business advisor they could run their own business doing it themselves and be in control of their own destiny.

@NigelAdams on Twitter was the first one to correctly respond to my own comment asking the question whether retired business people were out of touch with business today, and the answer is no they are not. Many are I’m afraid, because the business environment today is a million miles different from what it was 20 or so years ago. In my own working live I have seen the introduction of e-mail, Internet, mobile phones and now social network marketing. A conversation I had yesterday with a very successful Entrepreneur touched the subject of my own fear of falling out of date with current business trends as I get older, and business starts to move faster than I may be able to keep up with. However, as Nigel implies, its not the age of the person but their ability to keep up with what is happening in the world and adapting with it. After all, my Nan bless her, who is in her eighties, is more than happy to be doing her banking online, sending e-cards, using intant messaging and webcams, and even Facebook!

So where does this leave BusinessLink as an entity, and the hugely discussed topic of should it stay or going being discussed on many forums and heavily on the IoD group on LinkedIn. My opinion is that they should close it down as a separate entity and consolidate it’s offering more directly into the Regional Development Agencies, producing with it many cost savings as well and a more central place offering business advice. As an onsite business advice service it fails dismally because very few, if any at all, energetic, up-to-date and motivated business advisers will want to work for an organisation they have no control over and have their goal posts moved for no logical reason by a disconnect bureaucrat in Whitehall. Retired bank managers are used to this sort of management system and fit in with it nicely, but sadly have no real world experience of running their own businesses.

Here is some related topic’s I’ve found online about this too;

http://www.businesszone.co.uk/blogs/robertcraven/robert-craven039s-business-blog/business-link-should-it-stay-or-should-it-go

http://realbusiness.co.uk/finance_and_banking/the_axe_hangs_over_business_link

http://www.shell-livewire.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=24450

The bank is not your enemy

Posted in Entrepreneurialism on June 26th 2009 | 2 Comments

There has been so much negative press about banks lately, and yes I know that the people at the top have made some very big mistakes, but I still don’t get this whole the bank is the bad guy thing that seems to be going on. It is being discussed on Twitter, on business forums, and even when I was at a networking lunch today I felt sorry for an RBS business development manager who found herself trying to defend herself at one point. So I thought I’d put together a guide on how you should work with your bank, because I do and I’m pleased to say I’ve never had an problems with my bank.

Keep you Bank Close
Firstly and most importantly, if you walked up to a person on the street you had never met and asked them for a £50,000 loan what do you think they would say? The chances are they would laugh, tell you get to a life, and walk away, so why would you expect anything different?
If you do not keep your bank in the loop with what you are doing with your business how on earth could you ever expect them to make any personal decisions about your business? Meet your relationship on a regular basis and just fill them in with what you are doing, the plans for the future, and what is  working and what isn’t working. If you have any bad paying customers let them know, I’m talking warts and all. That way they get to know you and your business. You become more than just a number.

Keep them up to date with your finances.
Do you send your relationship manager your monthly management accounts? If not, you should. If you don’t have monthly management accounts then you have bigger problems anyway. Add your bank relationship manager to the email distribution list for your management accounts at the same time they come to you, not doctored versions made to look better or worse, exactly as they come. Also include your aged creditors and debtors, give the bank the full picture.
Believe me when I say, if they know exactly how your finances work and can even see you run a well managed financial system in your company it gives the bank more confidence in your business, it helps them apply the personal touch to decisions about lending or other facilities. If they know nothing about then it becomes a computers decision solely.

Put your money where your mouth is!
So many people expect the banks to freely lend them tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds for their business but are not prepared to commit anything themselves. They are not prepared to put up any security on their house, or any savings or finance of their own in. I’m not a bank but what this says to me is “I’m not that confident in my business so am not prepared to risk my own money, but I’d happily blow your money”. If I was a bank and someone was asking me for money but not put any of their own up alarm bells would be ringing loud and clear. If you don’t believe in your own business then walk away, but if you do believe in your own business then you should be prepared to risk as much as the bank.

Ask their opinion and feedback
You have a good relationship with your relationship manager from the bank because you meet them on a regular basis, and they fully understand your business. They know your financial situation because you copy them in on your monthly management accounts. So now ask them for their thoughts on how the bank can help you with your business, do they have any other clients you could do business with that they could introduce you to? Do they have any other products that could help your business (finance, factoring, more)? Do they have any thought about your business that perhaps from the outside they see and you don’t?

If you don’t have a relationship manager with your bank, get one, if your bank doesn’t provide them then the chances are you will be a number. If you don’t ever need more than a basic current account from your business bank this will be fine. However, if you ever need any borrowing or other more complex facilities then it is important to establish a good relationship with your bank.

I work by these basic rules with my bank and have to say I’ve been extremely happy with them over the past 10+ years I’ve had a business account. I’ve had quick and easy decisions on overdraft facilities, mortgages and other bank facilities. If I didn’t talk to my relationship manager it would not have been that simple, he knowswhen things are good and I’ve also sat with him and talked through when times have been hard, where I have made him aware of what my plans to handle the bad times were. My bank has supported me through all these.

I’m happy to give testiment that my bank is The Royal Bank of Scotland, the bank that has received such bad press lately. The same bank that got the bad publicity for the leaked memo about splitting their good and bad customers into differing categories. Well excuse me, isn’t that what all good businesses are meant to do, not that this was actually what was really happening mind, I’m not going to go into detail here but it was a paper/balance shuffling excercise.

The bank is not your enemy, it can be one of your biggest assetts, but you have to communicate with them. If you don’t then don’t be surprised if you become nothing more than a number processed by a computer.

Are the banks really not lending?

Posted in Entrepreneurialism on March 26th 2009 | 1 Comment

This morning I was at a breakfast meeting and bumped into my bank relationship manager from RBS whilst I was mid conversation with a relationship manager from Clynsedale Bank. We were having a discussion about, as if anything else, the banking situation in the press, Government funding, and the banks calling in of overdrafts and loans.

I had an interesting round table debate at the Chamber of Commerce a few weeks ago where I found myself, only initially, standing alone defending he banks. Almost all business owners around the table were very upset about the stories of banks retracting overdrafts despite none of them having experienced this first hand. An accountant in the room voiced concern that funding was becoming harder to obtain for his clients, and all in all the banks were not being seen in a very positive light. In the end I felt I really had to speak out…

Around that table I said the same thing that I said to the bank managers this morning, are they really not lending any money? I actually believe they are, in fact I know they are, and they are now doing things correctly .. which to be honest they should have been doing in the first place!

My wife and I identified an opportunity for a Buy2Let last night. We done the maths and this morning I spoke to the bank, by this afternoon we have a mortgage approved and we’re about to embark on our first investment property venture. Yes we needed to demonstrate we could afford it, yes we needed to put a chunk of our own money in, and yes the bank has a nce big bit of security over our home to cover our ventures; is that really a bad thing?

Here’s why; a stranger walks in off the street and asks you to lend them £1,000 for a share bet business idea because he knows it will work. Would you hand over your own £1,000? Probably not, but if that person had a fully thought out business plan, was putting in half the money themselves, and put up a bit of security to back you up, then would you? If nothing else, it focuses their mind to work a bit harder when their neck really is on the line, shows some commitment on their part, and makes them really think about their business first. Isn’t that what the banks should have always done before lending money every high risk punt before getting us into this mess?

Personally I can speak from experience, the banks are lending money both commercially and personally, they’re just being sensible about it now and that can only be a good thing. Before starting on any venture it will always need careful consideration, and if your business model in sustainable and you have the security to back youself up the banks are likely to support you.

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