I am putting together a presentation for a client of mine on work life balance and as I sit here I am compelled to write about the fact that there is no balance. How did we come up with this crazy concept? The term suggests that we actually have a balance or equal hours at work and home.. how unrealistic.
And the amount of training that is available on getting work life balance is quite interesting. Sadly one size does not fit all; an ideal week may provide you with some structure in how you manage your work day but probably not the balance you are looking for. And here is the real cruncher what is right today in regards to balance more than likely will not be tomorrow.
How often have you had to give up on your gym appointment because a meeting ran over time? I had a chat to a collegue about this very issue yesterday and my question is.. would you miss an appointment with a prospective client? If the answer is no then why miss an appointment with yourself?
So what is the answer? Perhaps we need to start thinking in terms of flexibility, high degrees of it! Reduction in how much we may procrastinate, saying NO and the king of them all get great at delegation.
Whenever I start to feel a little overwhelmed by what is occurring around me I go back to the concept of looking at my life in 4 quadrants. Family, Work, Friends and Me. How much time am I spending in each?
Here is what often happens, I have a bad day at work and I immediately call my friends to go have a drink, keep this up on a regular basis and two parts of the quadrant starts to suffer –family and me. Often I will have a serious chat to myself as to how much time I am spending in each quadrant and can I perhaps do better.
Instead of focusing on whether my life is balanced or not what I do is look at what I have achieved in a day, people whose lives I have impacted on and how much fun did I have along the way.. did we laugh?
Map it back to the four quadrants – family, work, friends and me – what have you achieved, whose lives have you impacted on in a positive way and how much fun did you have along the way.
Perhaps as you drive home tonight assess it from this prospective and you may be surprised as to how much life balance you actually do have.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Its all about choice
“We work in an environment where you need to engage your customers before they become a client”
With so many marketing messages to filter through prospective clients need to make a decision to listen to your message therefore engagement need’s to occur before they become a client. Too often I see businesses spend a lot of time on ways to engage clients after they have made a decision to become a customer. If you are one of these businesses imagine how much potential business you are missing out on?
Its all about choice; think about it - you choose which TV program you watch, what radio station you listen to, what emails you open or delete, which links to open up in Google; not sure about you but I am the remote control queen in our household.
I recently worked with two businesses, one where they were getting frustrated on despite their best marketing campaigns they weren’t getting any cut through or increase in their customer base. The other was building a base of loyal clients who were happy to refer businesses.
How does this happen? Simple really the second business understood that your customer has the power in the relationship you have with them. They knew who their customer base was, how they wanted to be engaged and interacted with which enabled them to grow their client base.
They also used tools that are available today, e.g. facebook, twitter, blog, website; invested in marketing and viewed their businesses as a whole; not two separate entities – property management and sales.
Customer engagement can be a minefield if you get it wrong, get it right however and you will have raving fans for life.
With so many marketing messages to filter through prospective clients need to make a decision to listen to your message therefore engagement need’s to occur before they become a client. Too often I see businesses spend a lot of time on ways to engage clients after they have made a decision to become a customer. If you are one of these businesses imagine how much potential business you are missing out on?
Its all about choice; think about it - you choose which TV program you watch, what radio station you listen to, what emails you open or delete, which links to open up in Google; not sure about you but I am the remote control queen in our household.
I recently worked with two businesses, one where they were getting frustrated on despite their best marketing campaigns they weren’t getting any cut through or increase in their customer base. The other was building a base of loyal clients who were happy to refer businesses.
How does this happen? Simple really the second business understood that your customer has the power in the relationship you have with them. They knew who their customer base was, how they wanted to be engaged and interacted with which enabled them to grow their client base.
They also used tools that are available today, e.g. facebook, twitter, blog, website; invested in marketing and viewed their businesses as a whole; not two separate entities – property management and sales.
Customer engagement can be a minefield if you get it wrong, get it right however and you will have raving fans for life.
Monday, September 28, 2009
A Virgin WOW experience
As a consultant/trainer I talk to my clients about the wow experience and often I either see blank faces or examples of “wow” that really isn’t a wow at all. If you provide a level of service that is the same as everyone else...people this is not a “wow” experience.
I was on a flight from Fiji to Sydney a few weeks ago on Virgin Blue and a fellow passenger experienced a “wow” moment.
Somehow and I suspect that a fellow traveller told the Virgin steward that it was Bills birthday so just as we were descending into Sydney airport they announced it to the passengers, got us all to sing along and then to all of our amusement sang a rendition equivalent to the Marilyn Munroe version.
Now why is it that I classify this as a “wow” experience, well firstly we all laughed, it became memorable, I am sure Bill is still telling everyone, I am writing about it so the WOW has turned into a WOM = word of mouth.
How many times does this happen in your business? Or are your people so busy simply keeping up doing their jobs that their ability to deliver WOW so it turns into WOM does not exist or isn’t even on the radar. Are you the same as every other agent in town?
Remember a brand name isn’t just what brings you in the businesses, the memorable experiences you create is often far more powerful.
I was on a flight from Fiji to Sydney a few weeks ago on Virgin Blue and a fellow passenger experienced a “wow” moment.
Somehow and I suspect that a fellow traveller told the Virgin steward that it was Bills birthday so just as we were descending into Sydney airport they announced it to the passengers, got us all to sing along and then to all of our amusement sang a rendition equivalent to the Marilyn Munroe version.
Now why is it that I classify this as a “wow” experience, well firstly we all laughed, it became memorable, I am sure Bill is still telling everyone, I am writing about it so the WOW has turned into a WOM = word of mouth.
How many times does this happen in your business? Or are your people so busy simply keeping up doing their jobs that their ability to deliver WOW so it turns into WOM does not exist or isn’t even on the radar. Are you the same as every other agent in town?
Remember a brand name isn’t just what brings you in the businesses, the memorable experiences you create is often far more powerful.
Monday, August 31, 2009
What is getting in the way of “wowing” your customers?
I spend a lot of time talking to businesses about the experience their clients have when they choose to interact with them. And if I had a dollar for every time I hear that our service is a key point of difference I wouldn’t have to train anymore.
When asked to describe how the service is a key point of difference would it surprise you to know that overall the experience isn’t really that different to any other agency.
Look at your market place, how many agents are you competing with? Looking into our industry from the outside in all agents look the same and client loyalty is up for grabs. So if your business has put no time or effort into mapping out your service delivery or the experience you want create chances are that most of your clients are simply satisfied and given a better option will take their business elsewhere.
Somewhere along the way we have lost the art of “wowing” our clients, or creating memorable experiences. Here are some reasons why:
Time
Time is an expensive commodity especially in property management. We can make ourselves very busy by during the day doing “stuff” like arrears, maintenance, inspections, rent reviews etc. But each on e of these requires some level of client interaction and often we are so focused on getting onto the next call or email that we forget about creating a memorable experience. Time management skills are critical but more so than that is the understanding that each interaction is unique even if the issue or question is the same as the last 4 callers. Your team must not just be focused on ensuring that calls are returned, emails responded to and issues dealt with in a timely manner but that the interactions are one of quality. You do not want to sound like or be thought of in the same way as the call centre caller – bland and irritating
Processes
Systems and processes in our industry have not really changed that much over the years. I want you to think about flying from Melbourne to Sydney. The routes that the planes take have probably been the same since they started flying however depending on what airline you fly the experience will be different.
It is the same for real estate. The service we provide is to rent, buy or sell homes, the processes involved in ensuring that these transactions are completed successfully are the same however the experience we create is what sets us apart from our competitors.
When was the last time you sat down and audited your processes from your clients prospective? At every touch point is the level of service provided convenient for you or your client? Is the experience one that you would talk about or is it the same as everyone else?
Ironically the most common excuse I get is lack of “time” to deliver high end service. What I would like you to consider however is the amount of time you will have available if your competitor starts to deliver a service is that unique and memorable in your market place.
Resources
Lack of man power, technology, training and dollar investment is often the reason why service delivery is poor. How many businesses have found out how your clients want to be communicated with? Or do you make the decision for them? What is it that they want to know from you? Newsletters were the popular trend years ago and yet many offices still see this as a point of difference and a key method of communication? Really? Are you so sure about this? Who have you asked and are you providing them with the type of information they want? How many of your clients actually read your newsletters anyway or do they end up in the junk mail or rubbish bin?
Are you using all the available technology to your best advantage? Again it continues to surprise me as to how many large brands in the market place seem to have their head in the sand around available resources and have no one line or social media strategy which by the way is free.
Experience
Often a business may have an idea of what their clients want however they are unable to deliver due to lack of experience, training and knowledge. And a good example of this is social media. Many businesses I talk to will often say to me I am not sure how to use this technology or I don’t have the man power to commit to it. Unfortunately your clients are not going to see it that way, if you are not playing in the same space as your current or potential clients are then you are not likely to meet them or build relationships. You need to build these strategies into your business and marketing plans.
So a number of things can get in the way however it is important to keep in mind that we are a people business. Sit down with your teams and work out what level of service you want to provide your clients, how you are going to make each interaction memorable, how does it fit into your businesses structure and budget and most importantly how are you going to take advantage of all the tools that are available in today’s market to wow your clients and create your point of difference.
Take a walk on the W.O.W side – What is needed, On time, With value
When asked to describe how the service is a key point of difference would it surprise you to know that overall the experience isn’t really that different to any other agency.
Look at your market place, how many agents are you competing with? Looking into our industry from the outside in all agents look the same and client loyalty is up for grabs. So if your business has put no time or effort into mapping out your service delivery or the experience you want create chances are that most of your clients are simply satisfied and given a better option will take their business elsewhere.
Somewhere along the way we have lost the art of “wowing” our clients, or creating memorable experiences. Here are some reasons why:
Time
Time is an expensive commodity especially in property management. We can make ourselves very busy by during the day doing “stuff” like arrears, maintenance, inspections, rent reviews etc. But each on e of these requires some level of client interaction and often we are so focused on getting onto the next call or email that we forget about creating a memorable experience. Time management skills are critical but more so than that is the understanding that each interaction is unique even if the issue or question is the same as the last 4 callers. Your team must not just be focused on ensuring that calls are returned, emails responded to and issues dealt with in a timely manner but that the interactions are one of quality. You do not want to sound like or be thought of in the same way as the call centre caller – bland and irritating
Processes
Systems and processes in our industry have not really changed that much over the years. I want you to think about flying from Melbourne to Sydney. The routes that the planes take have probably been the same since they started flying however depending on what airline you fly the experience will be different.
It is the same for real estate. The service we provide is to rent, buy or sell homes, the processes involved in ensuring that these transactions are completed successfully are the same however the experience we create is what sets us apart from our competitors.
When was the last time you sat down and audited your processes from your clients prospective? At every touch point is the level of service provided convenient for you or your client? Is the experience one that you would talk about or is it the same as everyone else?
Ironically the most common excuse I get is lack of “time” to deliver high end service. What I would like you to consider however is the amount of time you will have available if your competitor starts to deliver a service is that unique and memorable in your market place.
Resources
Lack of man power, technology, training and dollar investment is often the reason why service delivery is poor. How many businesses have found out how your clients want to be communicated with? Or do you make the decision for them? What is it that they want to know from you? Newsletters were the popular trend years ago and yet many offices still see this as a point of difference and a key method of communication? Really? Are you so sure about this? Who have you asked and are you providing them with the type of information they want? How many of your clients actually read your newsletters anyway or do they end up in the junk mail or rubbish bin?
Are you using all the available technology to your best advantage? Again it continues to surprise me as to how many large brands in the market place seem to have their head in the sand around available resources and have no one line or social media strategy which by the way is free.
Experience
Often a business may have an idea of what their clients want however they are unable to deliver due to lack of experience, training and knowledge. And a good example of this is social media. Many businesses I talk to will often say to me I am not sure how to use this technology or I don’t have the man power to commit to it. Unfortunately your clients are not going to see it that way, if you are not playing in the same space as your current or potential clients are then you are not likely to meet them or build relationships. You need to build these strategies into your business and marketing plans.
So a number of things can get in the way however it is important to keep in mind that we are a people business. Sit down with your teams and work out what level of service you want to provide your clients, how you are going to make each interaction memorable, how does it fit into your businesses structure and budget and most importantly how are you going to take advantage of all the tools that are available in today’s market to wow your clients and create your point of difference.
Take a walk on the W.O.W side – What is needed, On time, With value
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Ahead of the curve
I attended a property management conference this weekend and I have come to the conclusion that real estate conferences need a face lift.
A number of us held our own break out sessions by the pool bar and learnt more at these networking sessions.
Basic day to day processes should not be part of conference discussions, what should be discussed is how do we get businesses to stay ahead of the curve.
Those who are attending have committed time and money and I would hope want to be stretched in their learning.
What I found interesting was that out of a room of 200 delegates only 10 businesses had a facebook page, 5 had a twitter account and 2 had a blog site.
Real estate is a people business, our transactions are based in building relationships and engaging our clients. Social networking sites are an emerging platform for us to engage with our clients.
So sit up and take notice real estate world, your clients are using these platforms, in fact the biggest users of twitter are between the ages of 35 and 55 in Australia.
What are you doing in this space? Can you use a platform like twitter to say report maintenance into your office? Anything is possible its just a matter of how really!
Note to conference organisers do your attendees a favour and start adding in topics and speakers who will stretch and challenge your attendees and show them how to stay ahead of the curve.
A number of us held our own break out sessions by the pool bar and learnt more at these networking sessions.
Basic day to day processes should not be part of conference discussions, what should be discussed is how do we get businesses to stay ahead of the curve.
Those who are attending have committed time and money and I would hope want to be stretched in their learning.
What I found interesting was that out of a room of 200 delegates only 10 businesses had a facebook page, 5 had a twitter account and 2 had a blog site.
Real estate is a people business, our transactions are based in building relationships and engaging our clients. Social networking sites are an emerging platform for us to engage with our clients.
So sit up and take notice real estate world, your clients are using these platforms, in fact the biggest users of twitter are between the ages of 35 and 55 in Australia.
What are you doing in this space? Can you use a platform like twitter to say report maintenance into your office? Anything is possible its just a matter of how really!
Note to conference organisers do your attendees a favour and start adding in topics and speakers who will stretch and challenge your attendees and show them how to stay ahead of the curve.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Breaking up is no longer hard to do!
Remember the days in the old school yard where if you wanted to break up with your boyfriend or girlfriend you had to do it face to face. It was hard to do but it on reflection it made us responsible for our actions and gave us an insight into how the other person felt.
Fast forward 30 odd years and today I can send a text message simply saying ...sorry moving on, it was fun while it lasted, see you around. Or even worse, please accept this text as my resignation, I will not be returning to work.
At the horror of sounding like my parents...what on earth is this world coming to! If you type in breaking up via text into Google you come up with 148,000 hits. Am I really that old fashioned and is it really too much to ask that people behave with a level of dignity.
There are two ways of communicating these issues face to face or via the phone; the first is far more acceptable. If you have really cared about the person or want a decent reference from your last employer then unless you want to be labelled lazy, hurtful and have bad karma slap you in the face at some stage in your life I suggest you face into your issues. People and their emotions are not disposable.
By choosing not to discuss your issues and how you will move forward dis-empowers the other person creating a lot of hurt, confusion, anger and even the danger that they may choose to hurt themselves. Part of moving on from a relationship is the ability and opportunity to discuss what is happening and supporting each other through the process.
As adults or humans we do need to take responsibility for people who we choose to share moments of our lives with and act in a way that enables us to find a way forward despite the pain we may be in.
Text is an informal method of communication, there is no way you can build emotion into the message. But worse still it is cowardly because you don’t see the level of pain you may cause the person receiving your text.
Treat others as you would want to be treated and respected. Think before you hit the send button.
Fast forward 30 odd years and today I can send a text message simply saying ...sorry moving on, it was fun while it lasted, see you around. Or even worse, please accept this text as my resignation, I will not be returning to work.
At the horror of sounding like my parents...what on earth is this world coming to! If you type in breaking up via text into Google you come up with 148,000 hits. Am I really that old fashioned and is it really too much to ask that people behave with a level of dignity.
There are two ways of communicating these issues face to face or via the phone; the first is far more acceptable. If you have really cared about the person or want a decent reference from your last employer then unless you want to be labelled lazy, hurtful and have bad karma slap you in the face at some stage in your life I suggest you face into your issues. People and their emotions are not disposable.
By choosing not to discuss your issues and how you will move forward dis-empowers the other person creating a lot of hurt, confusion, anger and even the danger that they may choose to hurt themselves. Part of moving on from a relationship is the ability and opportunity to discuss what is happening and supporting each other through the process.
As adults or humans we do need to take responsibility for people who we choose to share moments of our lives with and act in a way that enables us to find a way forward despite the pain we may be in.
Text is an informal method of communication, there is no way you can build emotion into the message. But worse still it is cowardly because you don’t see the level of pain you may cause the person receiving your text.
Treat others as you would want to be treated and respected. Think before you hit the send button.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Is your business a donkey on the edge?
Harsh title I know but we are close to end of financial year and the question I want to put out to my peers and colleagues is how many of you have made the investment in developing, changing and reviewing your strategic business plan for the next 12 months. In fact many businesses I know don’t even have a business plan. If you haven’t made this investment then indeed your business is a donkey on the edge!
A colleague of mine makes a point of changing and reviewing his business plan every 90 days. Now potentially he drives everyone around him nuts however I do know that he runs an extremely successful business that has had growth despite the GFC.
Here is a concept for you; why not challenge yourself and your people to start with a clean slate every year? Take the learning from previous years and apply them to this year’s strategy then apply changes across the board from the vision of your business right down to the actions or implementation plans.
What you will find that overall your vision, mission, and values actually won’t change that much however you would have “refreshed” them. However you will find the gaps your business has had that have the potential to hold you back.
So where do I start I hear you ask? Well the best and most powerful way to conduct a strategic planning day is to get key members of your team together, bring in an outside facilitator, look at the data and ask the tough questions.
• What is our current reality in terms of our market share, overall growth,
profitability, competitors, branding, employee engagement, culture, systems,
process and what do our clients think of us?
• How did we get here? What have been our success factors, what has held us
back and what were the results of the actions from our last SWOT analysis.
• What are our future goals? Projects we want to implement over the next 12
months, the impact this will have on our budget/bottom line, what will be
the return on investment over what time frame?
• Have you mapped out our yellow brick road – how do we intend to achieve our
goals? What forces are in play e.g. market that will hinder us, do we have
the capability to overcome them, what do we believe will be our key success
factors and have we mapped all of this back to our budget.
• Assessing your success? What measurements can put in place to ensure that we
meet our goals within set time frames and at the success rate we
anticipated. Find a business that you want to become, what do they do well
and then do it better... we call it R & D i.e. rip off and duplicate.
Once you have clarity on the above you can then focus on what you need to invest in today to get there.
People
Without the right people the above is a fairly useless exercise as you are bound to fail. Take a look around your office do you have the right people in the right roles with the right skills sets and an overall right mix of people. They can’t all be like you! It is so important that you have people on your team who will challenge you...do not surround yourself with yes people.
Successful businesses today are agile, flexible and change driven therefore the people who choose to work for you must display the same characteristics.
Doing things the same way every year and expecting a different result is insanity so is doing the same as everyone else. We don’t need to change how we do real estate we just need to do it better.
Whether you play AFL or Rugby to win the game you don’t need to change the rules you just need to play a better, smarter, more tactical game with players who are committed, focused, passionate, play as a team, understand what the end game is and are trained and skilled to an inch of their life!
My tips for businesses today is
1. Look beyond real estate for ideas and apply these back to your business
2. The saying if it ain't broke don’t fix it... let me ask you what if you have
become so complacent that you don’t know if it’s broke. I always tell the
teams I train make sure you are sitting on a chair that is prickly and
uncomfortable
3. “We have always done things this way” damn that I say... if everyone is
doing the same thing or if it is what we have always done then the chances
are every other agent is doing the same thing and we are probably all doing
it in a mediocre way.
4. Don’t forget we make our own rules in business.
I am constantly being accused of cheating at games like Pictionary and Monopoly against my kids. However I say I am changing the rules to make the game better and more interesting and of course the end aim is to win. But it keeps my opponents on their toes, they watch me like a hawk to see what I will get up to next and they all want to take me on... does this not make me the market leader!
All the best for the new financial year and may the GFC not have an impact on your business.
A colleague of mine makes a point of changing and reviewing his business plan every 90 days. Now potentially he drives everyone around him nuts however I do know that he runs an extremely successful business that has had growth despite the GFC.
Here is a concept for you; why not challenge yourself and your people to start with a clean slate every year? Take the learning from previous years and apply them to this year’s strategy then apply changes across the board from the vision of your business right down to the actions or implementation plans.
What you will find that overall your vision, mission, and values actually won’t change that much however you would have “refreshed” them. However you will find the gaps your business has had that have the potential to hold you back.
So where do I start I hear you ask? Well the best and most powerful way to conduct a strategic planning day is to get key members of your team together, bring in an outside facilitator, look at the data and ask the tough questions.
• What is our current reality in terms of our market share, overall growth,
profitability, competitors, branding, employee engagement, culture, systems,
process and what do our clients think of us?
• How did we get here? What have been our success factors, what has held us
back and what were the results of the actions from our last SWOT analysis.
• What are our future goals? Projects we want to implement over the next 12
months, the impact this will have on our budget/bottom line, what will be
the return on investment over what time frame?
• Have you mapped out our yellow brick road – how do we intend to achieve our
goals? What forces are in play e.g. market that will hinder us, do we have
the capability to overcome them, what do we believe will be our key success
factors and have we mapped all of this back to our budget.
• Assessing your success? What measurements can put in place to ensure that we
meet our goals within set time frames and at the success rate we
anticipated. Find a business that you want to become, what do they do well
and then do it better... we call it R & D i.e. rip off and duplicate.
Once you have clarity on the above you can then focus on what you need to invest in today to get there.
People
Without the right people the above is a fairly useless exercise as you are bound to fail. Take a look around your office do you have the right people in the right roles with the right skills sets and an overall right mix of people. They can’t all be like you! It is so important that you have people on your team who will challenge you...do not surround yourself with yes people.
Successful businesses today are agile, flexible and change driven therefore the people who choose to work for you must display the same characteristics.
Doing things the same way every year and expecting a different result is insanity so is doing the same as everyone else. We don’t need to change how we do real estate we just need to do it better.
Whether you play AFL or Rugby to win the game you don’t need to change the rules you just need to play a better, smarter, more tactical game with players who are committed, focused, passionate, play as a team, understand what the end game is and are trained and skilled to an inch of their life!
My tips for businesses today is
1. Look beyond real estate for ideas and apply these back to your business
2. The saying if it ain't broke don’t fix it... let me ask you what if you have
become so complacent that you don’t know if it’s broke. I always tell the
teams I train make sure you are sitting on a chair that is prickly and
uncomfortable
3. “We have always done things this way” damn that I say... if everyone is
doing the same thing or if it is what we have always done then the chances
are every other agent is doing the same thing and we are probably all doing
it in a mediocre way.
4. Don’t forget we make our own rules in business.
I am constantly being accused of cheating at games like Pictionary and Monopoly against my kids. However I say I am changing the rules to make the game better and more interesting and of course the end aim is to win. But it keeps my opponents on their toes, they watch me like a hawk to see what I will get up to next and they all want to take me on... does this not make me the market leader!
All the best for the new financial year and may the GFC not have an impact on your business.
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