Hello? Are You There?
March 18, 2011
Updates from Abundant Lives Coach
This week I was doing some research using the internet and needed to make a few phone calls. And here’s what I found:
A few numbers I found on web pages on the internet are no longer in service. And mind you, these are sites that were to help me build web sites. Hmmm.
One number I called did not get any response no matter what time of the day I call. I eventually wrote in to the support email and after being redirected a few times, was given another number to call. And you guessed it, the phone was left to ring off the hook.
The third time I was smarter and chose to have live chat instead – that is live texting over the internet. I was attended to although the response was very slow in between messages. I wonder if the same support person is tending to multiple clients. But at least I got my questions answered.
I was particularly drained by one ‘expert’ who had me repeat my questions a few times while he came back with some response that did not address the issue. Not sure if he was not paying attention or that he did not have the answer and wanted to divert my attention. Either way it was a most tiring experience.
One representative could not answer questions about his product features. Fortunately I was able to get a hold of his “country sales managere” and have my queries addressed. I won’t bore you with more stories and experiences this week. But you get the drift.
Now that got me thinking. I was on the look out for service provider, I was going to be a willing client but based on my experience with each of these contacts, you can guess the outcome. They have just turned their hot prospects away. Prospects who found them, raised their hands and took the trouble to contact them.
While companies spend on marketing and advertising, leads are leaking from right under their nose when Operations and Support is not there to work in tandem with Sales and Marketing. That is an issue when departments within companies see themselves as functioning in silos.
Customer support is an extension of sales as far as I am concerned. Without courteous, helpful and knowledgeable client support, you may as well save your marketing fee. And why have a website with a phone number that is no longer in service?
On a brighter note, I have also experienced some outstanding service support this week. People who went out of the way to attend to my queries, who not only answered my basic, simple questions but gave insightful advices and recommended options for my next steps.
It is as though they can foresee where I may need a little extra information and gave that to me so I can make a more informed decision. Now that is what I call a trusted advisor.
Which of these do you think I will choose? Simple isn’t it? Marketing, Sales, Operations or Support, if serving your clients’/audience’/students’ needs and queries is not top of your concern, you are missing the entire point.
Even if you are tied to the service provider in a contract, you will not want to retain a provider with that kind of service. Businesses are turning away free leads and sending them to your neighbor who cares to be helpful, to listen, to reach out and help.
What would you do in view of these situations? And if you have any tips please do share them here. Sometimes I am so frustrated I want to conduct a workshop on Customer Service. It is a simple fact but one that may have escaped our business providers:
“If you are in the service industry then you are here to serve“. ~ Me.
For more posts on branding your services or expanding your solo or small business, you are invited to the soft launch of my marketing site at http://www.SynergyMarketingPro.com.
There is still a lot to do on this new site and I am not announcing it to the public yet. But as my regular readers, you get to know about these things first. That will be where I will be posting on the various marketing channels.
I am in the process of re-centering this site to focus on personal development so bear with me as I do some streamlining at this site. You’ll see more of Louisa the person here and Louisa the Marketer at Synergy Marketing Pro.
In any case, I love to hear from you. Leave me a comment and feel free to share this with your friends.
Privacy Policy On Skype
March 10, 2011
Skype is rolling out advertisements on the Home Tab, you will see Groupon advertisements appearing on Skype as of today if you are from the US, UK and Germany. Skype says there will not be annoying pop up ads – thank goodness! That will be too distracting.
This roll out may make use of your non-personally identifiable information (such as your location, gender) as Skype wants to show you targeted advertisement. If you want to understand the Skype privacy policy or if you want to manage your settings, check this out.
Understanding And Managing Skype Privacy Policy
Basically if you do not enter personal information, you do not need to worry about this. It just means you will be getting non targeted ads.
There is always a price to pay when we use “free” stuff isn’t it? After all, the vendor does provide great service to us!
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The 12th Competency of A Professional Coach
March 7, 2011
If you want to launch a Coaching Practice and Be a Processional Coach, this will be of interest to you.
The Internation Coaching Federation outlines 11 core competencies if you want to be assessed as a Certified Professional Coach.
So you enrolled for a coaching program, gone through the material, you trained on the 11 compentencies, you practiced, you coached, you wrote your Research Paper, designed your coaching model, did the drills, you have been supervised in your practicum, you clocked your time and yes, you finally passed the examination met all requirements and graduated. Hooray!
Now you are ready to launch your new career or coaching practice to partner, support and help.
But wait! Something’s missing.
- Where do you go from here?
- How do you start your practice?
- How do you tell others about your new found passion and career?
- Where do you find the people will needs support so you can put your competencies to work?
You are probably a great coach with lots of glowing testimonials from your trainers and mentor coach.
But what’s the next step?
Professional Coaching
Join me on 26th March at the Malaysian Association of Certified Coaches Round Table Talk. I will be sharing with you the 12th competency of a Professional Coach so you can launch your budding coaching practice.
Even takes place 26th March 2011 from 9:30 am to 12:30pm
Venue will be at TTDI, Selangor, Malaysia
If you are interested to know more, send me a mail or contact me at
http://abundantlivescoaching.com/myblog/contact-us/
If you have friends who are intereste in this, feel free to share this with them by clicking the “share” or “like” link. Or leave me a comment, we may discover the 13th competency too!
To your coaching practice!
Please fee free to pass on this information and share with your friends who may interested in this.
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