Breaking through the haze

I have gorgeous friends and they spoiled my little girl when she was born a couple of months ago. We adored everything she was given and I know she will treasure lots of the gifts for many years.

One gift stands out amongst the rest though. It didn’t stand out because it was expensive (I’d estimate total cost less than $25). It wasn’t the biggest thing we received. It wasn’t the most useful.

It stands out because it was uniquely timed and themed.

It arrived about 2 weeks before my due date and comprised a little “getting ready to have a baby kit”  - chocolate, some edible nipple cream (ahh yes – I just blogged the word nipple, awesome) and a necklace and bracelet for my older daughter. It was from a lovely lady who I don’t actually know all that well but it screamed thoughtfulness and was totally memorable.

In the haze of having a newborn – I still remember every aspect of her gift.

Your clients and target markets encounter their own “hazes” all the time. In the haze of December Christmas cards – does yours stand out?  In your pitch emails – will you be remembered or will you blend? How can you break through the haze in your own unique way?

By Anonymous with No comments

Chalk it up to the experience

Vacant shop at my local supermarket = perfect spot for kids chalkboard while the new shop goes in. 

Total cost, minimal. Total impact, I love coming here and having a 5 minute rest in the middle of shopping with a 2.5 year old. 

What could be perceived as a negative has been turned (easily) into a much loved positive (someone's even written "Central Rulz" - which is the name of the centre). 

By Anonymous with No comments

Look what I got you

"Look what I got you!" the smiling friend excitedly said to the bride to be. 

Being proudly presented stood three smiling, charming Irish gentleman with accents to make the bride to be (and her entire hens party) swoon. 

Now I'll admit - I don't do too well with "going out" venues after 10pm (yes I realise how old this reads - but I swear I'm still in my 30's) and to me it sounded like this trio of Irishmen were saying "leprechaun, Guinness, leprechaun" every time they spoke - but I did enjoy watching their interactions. 

One thing I noticed quickly, was that "high fives" seem to still be super popular in Ireland. When something was exciting, they trio would high five. When a friend showed up, they'd high five the new arrival. When the bride pulled out a phallic shaped water pistol... er... that's another story - but I'm sure it involved a high five somewhere. 

In our real estate agency we have clients who live minutes from our office ranging right through to those who live in countries I don't know the capital of. Watching the Irish trio interact reminded me that what's a completely normal practice for me here in Australia might be viewed with anything from playful curiosity through to complete horror depending on the culture I'm interacting with. 

I'm off to google the capital of Qatar and any cultural nuances I need to know about! And next time I'm in Ireland - high fives and Guinness all round. 

By Anonymous with No comments

Presenting the Present

I love to travel. A lot. Well - as much as I can these days with an 8 week old and a 2 and half year old. As much as I love to travel I equally hate booking my own travel, so I use travel agents. Over the past 15 years I've used a lot of different travel agents. Our most recent trip wasn't a big one, but the impact made by my current travel agent before we left was large. 

Mel, the travel agent who booked this most recent trip lives over an hour's drive away and she hand delivered the documents to my office as she was passing through my home town. (First nice touch). When I saw the package I thought the gorgeous solid hot pink box was a present of some sort, surely to welcome my new daughter to the world. 

Upon opening the box I saw a gorgeous bound notebook, all my travel documents and just the most gorgeous way of presenting them I'd ever seen (photos below - click into the blog if you can't see them). Certainly a huge step up from the plastic or canvas type pockets I was used to. 

The branding was subtle, and not enough to make me not want to display it proudly and I honestly felt really special. The cost of booking the holiday was thousands, the cost of this innovative twist on preparing my travel documents, bought in bulk, insignificant - and yet the impact was huge. 

I love what they've done and it's totally got me thinking... how can I incorporate this kind of wow into my own business?

By Anonymous with No comments

Sometimes it’s not about winning back the client

I recently stayed at a resort island and despite looking forward to the experience I had a fairly ordinary time. Now – I’m the first to admit that I’m a stickler for service, but the little things (chaotic breakfast service, missing cutlery, noisy rooms, bags being sent to the wrong rooms, poor dinner service etc) all added up to me feeling pretty darn disappointed with the whole stay.

I had planned on coming home and writing a fairly poor review on tripadvisor and only one thing stopped me. Strangely it was another huge service blunder. As we boarded the plane and flew to our next destination – our luggage stayed behind on the island.

I was horrified and quite emotional. We were travelling with two young children who had all sorts of necessities in the luggage, as did I with medication that I needed.

As we communicated with the resort throughout the day it appeared that our luggage may not meet up with us as it could take 3 days to get from this somewhat remote destination via courier and we only had 2 full days left on our journey.

And then, there was the turning point, I got a call that told me that our luggage was being personally flown to us and then driven to where we were staying (an hour and half away from the airport) by a staff member.

As I told the staff member, this was over and above what I expected – and I was extremely grateful.

So grateful that I won’t post the review on tripadvisor I was planning on posting and while I wouldn’t stay here again, they certainly went out of their way to attempt to repair the relationship with this one gesture.

Sometimes it’s not about winning back the client – sometimes that may not even be possible, but sometimes you can simply stem the “bad will” that has been generated with a grand gesture. 

By Anonymous with No comments