Telcare

Next time your telephone bill reaches you, put aside 10 minutes to sit down and see what you are paying for.

We frequently see companies who are paying for lines that they don’t use, or for a broadband service they forgot to cancel.  This is especially the case when someone has left the company and those that are left behind were not aware of the situation.

So grab your bill and a cuppa whilst you’re at it and let’s have a look through.

Firstly is the bill miss-addressed, it happens quite a lot, incorrect billing details can lead to confusion.

Secondly, identify all the services listed – do you know what they are? You will expect to see your lines, broadband and ddi’s here. The terminology can be difficult to understand, if there is something that isn’t clear, call the provider and clarify. This is the area where we often find that customers are paying for a service no longer required.

Next, check out the call rates, on some bills it isn’t easy to work out the cost per minute. Again you might need to call the provider to confirm your tariff.  It is worth knowing if your tariff is suitable for your particular call activity. For example if 80% of your calls are to mobile users, are you receiving the best rate available.

Finally, are you in a contract? This is an important factor and unfortunately this is not likely to be shown on your bill but something you should be very aware of.  Calling your provider and ask them if you are in a contract, when it ends and how to terminate it.

Good luck!

We have great customers and truly appreciate that they choose to do business with us. Saying thank you to them for their support is important to us.

As an SME we don’t have access to unlimited funds and are unable to constantly wine and dine them or take them to the latest sporting events so we have had to look for other ways in which we can show our gratitude. We’ve found that you really can show your appreciation without spending a fortune.

Here are some of the ways that have worked well for us over the years.

Customer Quarterly Draw
We hold a quarterly draw to say thanks for customer loyalty. Each quarter two customer’s names are pulled from a hat and both receive a £50 gift card. The winners are announced in our customer newsletter. We have received great feedback from the draw. We love hearing how our customer’s choose to spend their winnings. One customer was due to get married and she told us how she used her M&S gift card to buy her wedding cake. We got to see the stunning photos of the happy day including one of the cake!

Charity donations
Instead of giving random donations we try to support customers and suppliers in their various charitable efforts. This year we have supported many events from bike rides and marathons to a climb up Kilimanjaro and a sponsored chest wax – ouch!

Birthdays, babies and weddings
We always keep an ear to the ground to listen for good news. When we hear of a new arrival, a wedding or a birthday we love to respond with a message from the team.

Recommendations
Our newsletter encourages our customers to recommend our services, again offering gift cards for referrals.

Long standing customers
We keep an eye on our customer statistics and like to reward long standing customers with anything from appreciation certificates to discount vouchers and wine.

Saying thank you really matters and sometimes little gestures mean a lot.

As November rushes by and we all prepare for the run up to Christmas, we would just like to ponder on the here and now for a moment and focus on recent events in the Telcare office.

Firstly huge congratulations go to Victoria for passing her Maths and English exams associated with her NVQ. She was certain that they had been a disaster so we were all really pleased to hear otherwise.

Last Thursday marked another busy event at The Millennium Conference Centre, Gatwick. It was time for the South East Business Show once again and as always we willingly took up our usual place and spent the day happily meeting and greeting. It was a pleasure to share the space with Avocet Recruiting, Barnes Roffe Accountants and the very entertaining folk from Streetwise Couriers. In addition to the many exhibitors there were seminars providing top tips ranging from improving your profitability to effective sales in the new social world. All in all a good day was had even though it ended with sore throats and tired feet.

Talking of sore throats it’s that flu jab time of year! Not something to get excited about I know, but our office health checks and flu jabs are carried out by the lovely folk at All Health Matters, so it will be a pleasure to catch up with Gilly and the team. Oh and they bring sweets too!

November also brings the Telcare curry night. A popular event with the team, this time we are off to The Shozna in Rochester, I’m sure it will be a loud but thoroughly enjoyable evening as well as being the perfect opportunity to have a good catch up. Keep an eye on our Facebook page, there may be the odd photo.

If you are looking for a new networking opportunity, why not try the South East Business Show next Thursday (15th November).

This is a well established event bringing businesses together from all over the South East. As frequent exhibitors we deem the B2B Southeast as a very useful networking function. We have formed some very good relationships as a result of this show, which in turn has concluded in new customers and suppliers for Telcare.
We always go along with the aim to strengthen existing connections and forge new friendships. We believe that by keeping the exhibiting momentum going it all leads to success in the long term.

Of course we will be there again, in our usual spot, stand 51, looking forward to an enjoyable day. If you decide to come along please come and say hello, tell us about you and your business, we’d really like to connect.

The good news is entry is free, it’s easy to get to and you can visit anytime between 10am and 3pm.

The venue is Millennium Conference Centre, Effingham Park, Gatwick RH10 3EU

For more information visit the website http://www.b2bsoutheast.com

I stumbled upon Geoffrey James’s article quite by chance; it made me smile so thought I’d share some of it…

Don’t sell to jerks

Of course, conventional wisdom says that you should sell to whoever is willing to pay. After all, times are hard and sales are hard to come by. If the customer thinks it’s OK to treat you like crap, well, the customer is always right … right?
Wrong.
If you truly believe in your product and its value to the customer, selling to jerks gradually but inexorably leaches away your enthusiasm. When you help somebody you despise to become more successful, you know, in your heart, that you are making the world into a worse place.
That’s especially true when selling to a jerk sets you up for a long-term relationship. Now that jerk is part of your life–is part of who you’ll become over time. You’re now “partnering” with somebody who you can’t stand. It’s like a lousy marriage, bad for both of you.
Best case, you’ll have to tolerate the ongoing presence of the jerk, with all his or her obnoxious behaviors. Worst case, the jerk will become a constant headache, consuming a disproportionate amount of your energy and your company’s resources.
Selling to jerks is also a dead end when it comes to growing sales. The lifeblood of every small company is referrals–it’s the easiest kind of sales lead to close. Referrals come from customers who are happy (with your product and service) and generous enough to help out.
A jerk isn’t going to do that. In fact, jerks, if asked, would probably bad-mouth you, even if you’ve gone the proverbial extra mile. Why?
Because they’re jerks.
So, yeah, you might be turning down a sale by refusing to sell to a jerk. But long term, you’ll end up building a customer base who can be trusted, who will behave in a reasonable manner, and who will help you develop future sales.
And you’ll sleep better at night, too, knowing you’re not beholden (or hostage) to somebody you can’t stand.
Written by Geoffrey James For more information please go to www.geoffreyjames.com

An enormous amount of time is given to focusing on our customers. We spend hours on polishing our service, we are constantly looking for ways to improve and we are grateful for their custom and rightly so, because without them we wouldn’t be in business.

However, whilst we are caught up in the busy life of serving our clients, I wonder how often we consider how we are performing as a customer? We are all someone’s customer. Mostly we happily receive the service our suppliers offer and don’t comment until there’s a hitch in normal proceedings.

Recently I referred to a customer as one of our ‘favourite’ customers. Why are they our favourite customer? Of course there is the obvious answer, they give us business, but then there is so much more to it than that.
A good customer has been open to forming a relationship with us, they provide us with precious feedback, they respect the need for our terms and procedures and they recognise the value of our offerings, they sometimes even refer us.

It got me wondering, how do we rate as customers, what would our suppliers say about us?

Do we give feedback to our suppliers?
Do we acknowledge their payment terms and pay on time?
Are we grateful for the service? Do we tell them?
Have we referred them?

Maybe if we take the time to consider our own behaviour as customers, it will help us understand and serve our clients in a more efficient manner. Certainly food for thought!

Why Exhibit?

As Telcare exhibit quite frequently we often get asked whether we consider these types of events successful. The answer is yes but the emphasis has to be on how you determine ‘successful’.

As we sell telephone systems, which can be a fairly hefty purchase, we don’t expect visitors to walk by our stand and announce that they’ll have two of those please. So instead our aim is to merely introduce ourselves.

We go along to these events focusing on relationships. During the day we meet fellow exhibitors, organisers and visitors. Some we know well, some not so well and others we have yet to meet. Our aim is to support our friends, forge new relationships and strengthen those existing connections.

We have found that it is extremely important to remember that the group of people sharing the event will be made up of customers and suppliers, in other words people who are looking to buy and to sell. The key here is being open to buying regardless of the fact that you have paid for an exhibiting space. The reason for this is plain, if everyone went to sell sell sell then we’ll all find ourselves in a bit of a pickle. If we put on our buyers hat and view visitors as prospective suppliers and open the channels of communication the outcome will be far more enjoyable, and in the long run far more successful. You’ll notice I said in the ‘long run’, that’s because we believe nothing happens over night, success comes from momentum. The more you exhibit the more you will learn; the more you learn the better you exhibit. The more people you meet, the more likely you are to increase the chances of doing business.

Of course there are other things to take into consideration when exhibiting, such as the position of your stand, stand etiquette and the ante and post exhibition plan, but that’s all for another day. In the meantime you can find Telcare at the b2b2012 on 27th January 2012. http://www.b2b2012.com why not come and say hello?