Community get togethers

Christmas is less than a week away and I am glad to say I am going to try and do nothing over the week (although I will more than likely get bored and start working in a day or two). The snow fall in Cardiff has been pretty heavy – for us anyway – with at least 6 inches. Walking into town from Canton really struck me with a few things about the lack of foresight and lack of community. Whether that is business community, social community there is a serious lack.

Firstly a bit of context. This Saturday is the last weekend before christmas potentially the busiest weekend of shopping of the year. Potentially the first chance to begin that christmas feeling. So the shops are pushing out all the stops to get you into their shop and say a big thank you for their custom in 2010???? The photo's above are some of the cleaned areas on the main road form Canton into the City Centre in total there were about four blocks of snow that had been cleaned off the pavement by I can only assume the shopkeepers.

One of them ironically is a toll shop so you would expect that to be done however why where they all not cleaned? On one side you have the belief that it is the council and highways to clean the pavements.

But lets think about another scenario. It's the last chance to make an impact on your customers. If the pavements arn't cleared are customers more likely going to your shop or a bigger shopping centre? In money terms, shops coming together and working together to create an area of community would surely be advantageous to everyone involved.

On a social aspect there was also the responsibility issue of people slipping on ice as they get to your shop. Firstly I was wondering if you clear ice, are you then responsible for the area? Anyway it's about service added value and a better experience. For a couple of minutes of exercise in the snow. Below is the street a day later. Now compacted ice it could definitely be advertised as an ice rink.

Customer service and a small little juice bar

Well it's 2010 and the recession is still on-going. While we have all been cutting back there has been one indulgence that I have allowed myself. Over the last year or so, if I was not climbing I would have a lazy sunday, walking around the city and going to a smoothie bar called Vive. More recently due to the changes in the city centre they have moved from one place to another. so I was really happy to see that they have now got a new unit right in the cross roads of the new shopping centre. So for the last two or three weeks I have had a number of smoothies from their new place.

So where is this blog going? well today I arrived at 3:35pm wanting one of the 'Gin Slings' (a mixture of ginger orange and apple), there I was eager for my hit of fruit when I was told that they had packed their juicer away for the day and the customer before me had had the last juice drink of the day?????? Ok so now I am confused. I can understand if they had run out of the ingredients. But a full half an hour before they close and they are already packing away. I thanked them for the information and walked off. Then as I started to walk off I began to think about how bad the situation was.

Firstly in today's economy, customer service is key. Companies have to go beyond selling products and give them something they can't get from their competitors.

If they are going to close early then they should have signs saying so.

If for them it is all about money then lets say on average they work 300 days a year, and this happens every day they are open. I ordered one of the cheaper ones so lets use that as an example, I think it comes in at £3.50, so times that by 300 that's £1.050 per year less in the bank.

I am thinking about the times at Hoffi we have worked over time and gone the extra mile. Well beyond the 'opening hours' of the studio. While there has to be a cut off point.

So finally to sum up. If you are setting up a brand or business it has to be genuine and authentic. The owners have to believe in it and they have to talk about why they are doing it, rather than what and how. In the same way brands that have been established for years have also got to look at why they exist.

It's all about customer service

I came across an article about the growth of an online company called zappos the other day, which I found very interesting. It's refreshing that a company can be so strong in terms of keeping it's customer service being the most important thing. I also have been thinking about companies that have recently appeared on the market or have been around for years. Many of the ones we hear about these days all have pushed customer service or their internal culture so they keep ahead of the market. It almost seems like a karma for business is being formed. If we do business in a genuinely open and ethical way then we will become successful.

I can imagine cynics will be saying that it is all just whitewashing etc, however perhaps with the internet and social media coming to give people instant information about companies perhaps companies that claim but are not will be found out. Below is a film of CO of Zappos who talks about how they work as a company.