Delighting Your Customers

When I was first approached by Lisa Carden of A & C Black Publishers to write 'Delighting Your Customers' I nearly turned down the opportunity as I didn't think I had the talent to write a book. English was my worst subject at school and as my children will tell you, I don't know many long words! But I realised that I am always telling people to never turn down an opportunity and I was about to do just that so in a wild moment I signed the contract and was committed to write 40,000 words in just five months. It was very hard work but when I saw the book on the shelf at Waterstones in Oxford Street I was so excited that I just wanted to tell everyone in the shop that I had written it. Now four years later the revised Edition is out today and I'm hoping to write another book soon. Never underestimate your talents because you will never know what you are capable of unless you try and persevere.

On Wednesday September 14th I attended the Autumn meeting of the Financial Mail Women's Forum at Fredericks Restaurant in Islington. Unfortunately Jennie Agutter who was booked to be the speaker wasn't able to make it due to her filming schedule and Deborah Hollamby who was to stand in for her was taken ill so there was no speaker but it gave the members an opportunity to network and promote their businesses or events. I met two very nice girls from Bloomberg Bank who were attending the event for the first time and enjoyed talking to them.

Afterwards I dashed home because the Wessex Women were meeting at the Cloud Hotel on that evening and as the Hotel is still fully booked I was needed to help in the restaurant. I wasn't able to listen to Lord Ian Strathcarron's talk but I heard alot of laughter coming from the room and I had some excellent feedback about his presentation from the members who I understand thoroughly enjoyed it. Here is Karen Guttridge's account of his talk.
Following in the footsteps of Mark Twain, Lord Strathcarron proposed "The Moral Regeneration of the Human Race." To draw an analogy from medicine- when a healthy person undergoes vaccination they receive small amounts of the disease-producing microbe thereby ensuring that they do not fall victim to the disease ever again. So perhaps in the same way, we may refer ourselves immune to the 7 deadly sins [wrath, greed, sloth, pride, gluttony, envy and lust] by permitting ourselves to dabble with 'just a little' of each one! It is hoped that our memory of the negative experience [ such as shame] gained by such indulgence will be enough to discourage any further sinning!
Eventually we will be sin free!  My mind boggles and as Karen says "Where's the fun in that?"

It's been a very busy week for me and on Thursday I had the pleasure of attending the pilot of a new competition -The UK Business Speaker of the Year. Motivational speaking is a subject I am very interested in and it is becoming an important part of business. The idea is to create an event that will bring the UK's top business speakers to Bournemouth and make people aware of the the brilliant conference facilities in Bournemouth. The final was held in the Ocean Theatre, Pavilion Dance, there were 8 finalists and I was disappointed to see only one woman amongst them. However it was a very interesting and entertaining evening and was sponsored by RT Media a local branding communications agency that has become very successful since it started in 2002. If anyone is interested in developing their voice for public speaking I can recommend an excellent teacher at the Winchester Voice Studio. Her name is Amanda Smallbone for further information you can contact Amanda at amanda.smallbone@me.com.

The next Wessex Women's Network meeting is on Oct 26th when Christine Dyke will be talking about women in politics, I look forward to welcoming you to this event.

I often recommend a book and this time I thought I would like to recommend 'Delighting Your Customers' by Avril Owton MBE published by Bloomsbury. Delivering excellent customer service without breaking the bank. Every one of us can make a difference to the customer's experience in our company often by being just kind and caring.

'Customers don't always care how much you know until they know how much you care'


Take care

Avril