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Emergency First Aid at Work

Posted on 18th June 2019 by The Marketing People — No Comments ↓

We are pleased to announce that we have recently completed and passed Emergency First Aid at Work and Emergency Administration of Epinephrine Auto-Injector training, meaning that The Marketing People now exceed legal provision of first aid in the workplace.

Are you compliant?

The Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981 require you to provide ‘adequate and appropriate first-aid equipment, facilities and people, so your employees can be given immediate help if they are injured or taken ill at work.’ These regulations apply to all workplaces, but legislations differ depending on the circumstances.

Head to www.hse.gov.uk to find out how first aid affects your business and if you are compliant.

Who to choose?

If you do need to organise appropriate training, as an employer you will need assurance that you have selected a competent training provider.

This was a no-brainer for us. We have worked with D&A Education on many marketing projects, helping them to present their business and its services professionally. So far, we have: reviewed their business name; created their positioning statement and strapline; designed their logo; applied their brand ID to key stationery elements including business cards, letterheads, compliment slips, introducers, flyers, certificates and roller banners; purchased a relevant URL; designed and developed their website, and set up their e-mail accounts, just to name a few.

We continue to work with them to ensure their marketing is still benefiting their business and, as with many of our clients, we have built a friendly, long-lasting relationship with them. We believe in their business model and the training they provide, so it made sense to choose them to ensure we were complying with legislation.

We also arranged for them to use our company premises, as our upstairs room is spacious and comfortable- ideal for both the practical elements of the day and the educational aspect.

What’s the emergency first aid at work training like?

Our experience of first aid training was memorable, engaging and enjoyable whilst remaining professional, practical and productive.

Over the course of the day we were given a presentation on each aspect of first aid to be covered, then we performed hands-on practical exercises in our pairs, before being examined on them.

During the one-day course we covered CPR, how to treat an unconscious casualty, shock, minor injuries, wounds and bleeding, burns, fractures, epilepsy, diabetes and anaphylaxis, plus many more.

Following the practical examinations there was a written test to complete to ensure we had understood everything that we had been taught.

We did it!

We were delighted to find out we scored 100% on the day, meaning The Marketing People are going above current legislations for first aid provisions at work.

To ensure your business is compliant, contact D&A Education on 07951 996203 or visit www.daeducation.co.uk to find out how their wide range of tailored courses can benefit you.

If your marketing needs bringing back to life, call The Marketing People on 01543 495752 to arrange your free initial consultation. Work with us and know that your business- and your health- are in safe hands.

10 things to think about when considering a CRM

Posted on 25th August 2015 by The Marketing People — No Comments ↓

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems can be a huge asset to a business. They can be your phone book, track your emails, help with your marketing strategy, be your to do list, and even your productivity report.

There are a huge number of CRMs available, all of which have different strengths and limitations. We, at The Marketing People use Hubspot CRM, which we have reviewed.

Setting up and using a CRM requires a huge commitment in terms of time, effort, training, and money, so you need to think carefully before you make your decision.

So where do you even begin? Here are 10 questions you need to ask when considering a CRM.

Why are you considering a CRM system?	Why do you need it? What is going wrong at the moment? It is a really big investment, both in effort and in money; what are your reasons for this change?
What do you want from your CRM?	What do you want to achieve? Do you just want to use it as a record of calls and contact? Do you want to have reports available to managers of productivity? Do you want to grow your prospect list? You need clear goals to pick the right system
Who will be using it?	Will only one person be using it? Will there be 300 people on it? Some systems charge by user, so you need to have an idea of who you want on it.
Who needs to view what? Do you need different access levels?	Following on from who will be using it, you need to know who can view what. Some CRMs have open accounts so all users can see all information. In a bigger company you may need to give certain access to certain people, in which case you will need to look at buying user accounts.
Is it easy to use?	Some CRMs can have every report and action under the sun, but that can make them very awkward to use. CRMs become an extra limb once you have one, and you rely on it constantly, so you need to make sure its user friendly. The last thing you want is for you and your employees to get frustrated with it and want to throw your computer out the window every day.
Is it easy to customise?	CRMs are brilliant, and usually include most things you will need. However, each company is unique, and you are bound to need to re-label things, or add extra elements, to make the system work well for you. How easy is it customise? Will you need to go through the CRM hosting company, or can you change it yourself?
Will it add extra work to your day?	The CRM system is meant to make your life easier, but if your CRM doesn’t meet your needs, or you don’t have the processes in place for it to work correctly, it can quickly become a time suck. Will people be doing jobs twice? If telesales workers have to type notes after the call, it will add time to each call, meaning you have to reconsider targets etc., as you are giving an extra job to do.
What is the CRM’s support team like?	If you have a large team, you are more than likely going to need a strong support base. You are going to need someone to call upon all hours of the day to answer the problems of the many people.If you have a smaller team, you will still require support, but possibly might be able to have one connection who’s available, or have an internal support system before you escalate it to an external support team.
Will you require training?	Will the people who need to use the CRM system be able to use it? If this is the first time using a CRM system, even the most computer savvy can get overwhelmed.Take the time to book training at the beginning, whether this is a group training session, or webinars sent out to individuals.
How much do you want to spend on a CRM?	The big question. How much do you want to spend? This depends on all the above elements. There are some free systems you can use, but that really depends on what you need it for. Extra costs can be found in needing more user accounts, customisation, extra support and extra training.

Once you have established your expectations, you can narrow down the huge list of CRM options available.

You should be able to arrange a free ‘tour’ around the CRM. This can be quite exciting as you see all the new possibilities, but remember to keep coming back to your list. Does it do what you actually need it to do? And, does it do it efficiently?

It is usually best to ensure an actual team member who will use it is on this virtual tour too. Though management are the decision makers, if your top biller can’t make head or tales of the system, it’s going to affect their mood, their attitude and consequently the money they bring in. Having honest feedback from the actual users will save you time and money in the future.

Transferring data to your new CRM

Once you have decided on a CRM, and installed it, the next big task is the set up and transfer of data.

Unless you are a brand new company, you will have to transfer existing data over to the CRM. This takes time. Lots of time. You will need to prepare the data you have so that it is suitable to be uploaded, then depending on the system, and the amount of data transferred, it will take its time to upload too. Though annoying, it is much more preferential than the alternative of manually inputting all of your data.

Set expectations about how you want your employees to use the CRM

Once your data is up and running, you need to allow time to adjust. Though you may have great ideas of how the process will work, they may not be practical when you actual use it day to day. Have an initial plan and trial it, if it takes more time than you expect, or you realise you can capture extra data that would be really beneficial, review the plan and reset the standards for all users.

The worst things about CRMs is when everyone uses them differently, and you have half a collection of data on one contact’s page and an essay on another contact’s page. Set out the essential information that needs to be captured every day or every call.

Then that’s it, the organisation begins. But remember, if it really isn’t doing what you need it to do, change it! There are plenty of CRM’s out there, and they are not one size fits all, keep looking until you get the right one.

You can find more useful articles on customer service throughout our blog, to make sure your customers are receiving the best experience possible.

If you want to utilise the data you have, and create a profitable marketing plan give us a call today on 01543 495752 or take a look at the marketing services we offer.

Why Customer Reviews Are Important & How To Get Them.

Posted on 9th April 2013 by The Marketing People — 1 Comment ↓

Customer reviews are important, think about the last few products you brought; did you review them online first? For many people, reading product reviews has become an integral part of the buying process.

Why are product reviews so important?

Whether you have a website or an ecommerce website, having reviews or testimonials on your website can help to make your business more credible, trustworthy and will hopefully convince people to buy from you instead of your competitors.

The Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising Survey carried out during 2011 found that 70% of people trust opinions posted online. Online reviews were the second most trusted form of advertising, with ‘recommendations from people I know’ beating it to first place, this shows just how important consumers consider reviews to be.

As well as showing people that your products and services are great it will also help your SEO. People will generally use the kind of keywords and keyterms in their reviews that your target audience will be searching for when trying to find your products.

How do I get customer reviews?

Emails

Amazon has a brilliant model for gaining product reviews. If you’ve ever ordered from Amazon you’ll have noticed that a few days after you receive your product you receive an email asking you to review the product. This ensures that the majority of products sold through Amazon have reviews.

If you have an ecommerce website this can be replicated by setting up automated emails to go out to customers a few days after you estimate their order should have arrived.

Leaflets with orders

When you send your orders out, you should always include details of how to get in touch with customer service if the customer is unhappy. Along with your customer service information, encourage happy customers to leave you a review and make sure you tell them how to do it.

If you sent out leaflets or flyers with your orders showing customers what other products you sell or alerting them to offers, make sure you include a call to action to review their product on there as well.

Social Media

Many consumers take to social media, Twitter especially, to vent their frustrations or sing a business or products praise.

Monitoring social media using tools, such as Social Mention, Twitter Advanced Search and Google Alerts can help you get a good idea of how people are feeling about your brand.

This works well for your business in two ways. The first is that you can address any unhappy customers and try to sort their issue out; this also shows your business is proactive in ensuring your customers are happy.

The second is that if you see anyone singing your praises, you can thank them and ask them if they’d like to share their thoughts on your website and send them a link to a review page.

Customer Service & Suggestion Cards

If you offer a service which requires your customers to visit your shop, office or business, you could ask customers to leave their thoughts and any suggestions on a card.

These can then be typed out and posted on your website. It’s important to make sure you type them out instead of scanning them, as a scan won’t benefit your websites SEO.

What if I get a bad review?

If you get a bad review, do what you can to contact the customer and rectify the problem but whatever you do don’t delete it, unless it’s offensive of course.

People will be suspicious if they see pages and pages of five star positive reviews. The odd average or poor review shows consumers that you’re being truthful and posting all reviews and not just deleting the poor ones, which will make your business look honest.

What do I do with customer reviews?

If you have an ecommerce website ideally you want reviews for each product or service.

If you haven’t got an actual product for sale on your website, showcase your testimonials and reviews on a ‘testimonials’ or ‘reviews’ page.

You may also want to do this if you’re an ecommerce website and a customer emails you or provides you with a general review about your business as a whole. For example, one of our clients, Gardening Delights, has individual reviews on each product but they also have a Testimonial page for general feedback.

Don’t think you need reviews as you’re a small business? Here’s a post on how they help you grow as a business.

If you’re a small business based in Burntwood, Lichfield, Cannock or the West Midlands and need help with any aspect of your marketing, print or web design get in touch with us to find out how we can offer your business real benefit.

You can call us on 01283 249 579 or fill in the contact form on our website.

LEGO’s Excellent Example of Customer Service

Posted on 9th January 2013 by The Marketing People — No Comments ↓

We all know how important it is to provide your customers with the best possible customer service you can. The results are well worth it and will earn you loyal customers who are more than happy to sing your praises.

We wanted to share this brilliant example of customer service from LEGO.

LEGO received an email

From 7 year old Luka who lost one of his Ninjago Ultrasonic LEGO figurines while in a supermarket.

“Hello. My name is Luka Apps and I am seven years old.With all my money I got for Christmas I bought the Ninjago kit of the Ultrasonic Raider. The number is 9449. It is really good. My Daddy just took me to Sainsburys and told me to leave the people at home but I took them and I lost Jay ZX at the shop as it fell out of my coat. I am really upset I have lost him. Daddy said to send you a email to see if you will send me another one. I promise I won’t take him to the shop again if you can.”

Luka received a reply from Richard in LEGO’s customer service department, saying that he had spoken to Ninjago master Sensei Wu, who had told him that it was an accident and that he wouldn’t take his figurines to the supermarket again.

As a result, LEGO were going to send him a new figurine and some extras. Not only did they offer to replace his figurines, they also decided to help his Dad out by telling Luka that he should always listen to his Dad.

You can read LEGO’s lovely heart-warming reply below:

“Thanks for sending us an email!

We are very sorry to hear about you losing your Jay minifigure but it sounds like your dad might have been right about leaving it at home. It sounds like you a very sad about it too.

Normally we would ask that you pay for a new one if you lose one of your minifigures and need to have it replaced.

My bosses told me I could not send you one out for free because you lost it but, I decided that I would put a call into Sensei Wu to see if he could help me.

Luka, I told Sensei Wu that losing your Jay minifigure was purely an accident and that you would never ever ever let it happen ever again.

He told me to tell you, “Luka, your father seems like a very wise man. You must always protect your Ninjago minifigures like the dragons protect the Weapons of Spinjitzu!”

Sensei Wu also told me it was okay if I sent you a new Jay and told me it would be okay if I included something extra for you because anyone that saves their Christmas money to buy the Ultrasonic Raider must be a really big Ninjago fan.

So, I hope you enjoy your Jay minifigure with all his weapons. You will actually have the only Jay minifigure that combines 3 different Jays into one! I am also going to send you a bad guy for him to fight!

Just remember, what Sensei Wu said: keep your minifigures protected like the Weapons of Spinjitzu! And of course, always listen to your dad.

You will see an envelope from LEGO within the next two weeks with your new minifigures. Please take good care of them, Luka. Remember that you promised to always leave them at home.

Happy building!

Sincerely,
Richard,
LEGO Consumer Service”

What you can take from this

Some people have raised doubts over its authenticity; whether it’s real or not this is the kind of standout customer service you need to be providing.

You don’t need to be giving things away to provide your customers with excellent customer service; just provide them with solutions to their problems and answers to their queries.

Show that you care and you want to help them however you can. If someone who is not yet a customer gets in touch with you, you’ve got an excellent opportunity to turn that enquiry into a customer.

If you do this well, you will create loyal customers who give your business, service or products glowing reviews and refer you to their friends and family.

Perhaps if your customers are as social media savvy as Luka’s Dad, your response may even go viral!

You can read more about what social media means for customer service in another of our posts.

If you business needs a hand to delight your customers, why not speak to us about a marketing strategy? Call us on 01543 495752, or go to our approach page for more details.