Posted on June 24, 2009 by Nick
Regular readers (yes, you, Mum) will know that I spend a fair amount of time here banging on about customer service. Today, I doff my cap in honour, because I’ve got a guest writer in to tell his story. Eamonn O’Rourke is a great friend of mine – and mighty funny too. So pop the [...]
Filed under: people skills, sales, service | Tagged: service, customer service, business, CRM, entrepreneurship, start a business, run a business, entrepreneur, customer satisfaction, ebay, eBay business, shed, gardening, inventor, inventions, industrial revolution | Leave a Comment »
Posted on June 5, 2009 by Nick
If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, I hope I’ve been broad enough in my declared opinions for you not to be able to guess which way I vote in political elections. After all, that’s nobody’s business but my own.
I’m not going to tell you here how I voted on Thursday (although [...]
Filed under: current affairs, finance, marketing, sales, service | Tagged: british politics, business, business and politics, business survival, customer service, depression, downturn, economic recovery, economy, election, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, european election, general election, marketing, recession, recovery, run a business, sales, start a business, turnaround | Leave a Comment »
Posted on May 18, 2009 by Nick
Mostly, this blog deals with my personal experiences of running a business. Today, though, instead of taking you to my office, I’d like to take you home. To sunny Sydenham in South London, for a quick look through my local lens at supermarket giant Tesco.
Tesco has an astonishing position at the top of the retail [...]
Filed under: business heroes, marketing, retail, sales, service | Tagged: business, business survival, CRM, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, innovation, retail, run a business, start a business, supermarket, Terry Leahy, tesco | 2 Comments »
Posted on April 14, 2009 by Nick
Hello! I hope you had a fine and restful Easter!
I’ve been trying to resist writing about BBC1’s bizfest, The Apprentice, but I can’t help it. It’s getting me quite annoyed.
Let me be fair, here. We’re into Series 5 (yup, 5!) and rather like Big Brother, that means that the game has changed a little. The [...]
Filed under: current affairs, finance, people skills, sales, service | Tagged: Amstrad, apprentice, BBC, Big Brother, business, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, run a business, Ryanair, start a business, The Apprentice | Leave a Comment »
Posted on March 23, 2009 by Nick
In these troubled economic times, much has been rightly written about customer service. If you want customers to stick with you, it seems a pretty good idea to put a bit of effort into looking after them.
A good magnifying glass for this sort of thing is the banking industry. You can’t have failed to notice [...]
Filed under: PR, marketing, people skills, retail, sales, service | Tagged: business, call centre, CRM, customer management, customer service, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, run a business, service, start a business | 1 Comment »
Posted on March 9, 2009 by Nick
Hi there!
I’m trying to make this blog as much about my personal business experiences as about the advice I both give and receive as I navigate the world of business. And sometimes that means being critical. I’m not going to name any names, but the following is absolutely true, and if the person responsible should [...]
Filed under: marketing, people skills, sales, service | Tagged: business, customer service, employees, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, freelance, freelancing, outsourcing, run a business, sales, service, staff, start a business | 4 Comments »
Posted on February 27, 2009 by Nick
We’re doing a lot of video production work at the moment, and that’s meant buying lots of new toys.
Like most people, I shop for high-tech stuff online; which is great for getting a good price, but not so good for truly judging the quality of the vendor. Anyone can knock up a good website; whether [...]
Filed under: marketing, service | Tagged: business, competition, customer contact, customer satisfaction, customer service, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, run a business, start a business | Leave a Comment »
Posted on January 12, 2009 by Nick
Over dinner last night, we ended up talking about the late, great Ronnie Barker.
The taller half of the Two Ronnies was as genial off-screen as he was on-screen, and unlike so many people touched by the hallucinogen of fame, it never went to his head. The story I was told last night went something like [...]
Filed under: PR, marketing, retail, sales, service | Leave a Comment »
Posted on November 27, 2008 by Nick
Do you run a shop? Read on, then…
As I write, it appears that Woolworth’s, staple of the high street for 99 years, is to be put into administration.
For fans of slightly soggy pick’n’mix- or sweets with a strange rubbery patina from the fingers of 50 other small children, this is bad news.
I genuinely sympathise with [...]
Filed under: current affairs, retail, sales, service | Tagged: bank, business, finance, Hilco, pick'n'mix, recession, retail, risk, running a business, sales, shopfitting, start a business, start your own business, store, Woolies, Woolworths | 1 Comment »
Posted on November 19, 2008 by Nick
I’ve spent the past few weeks blogging about the recession, but I want to go back today to one of my old hobby-horses: customer service.
Yesterday, I was back in the studio doing some video work. One of our guests was Judy Naake, a lady I have met once before, and who is a supremely capable [...]
Filed under: business heroes, marketing, retail, sales, service | Tagged: business, businesswoman, businesswomen, customer service, Judy Naake, self tan, service, start a business, women in business | Leave a Comment »
