A Perfect Example of Superior Customer Relations

We Can All Learn From This

The following was shared in an email and I liked it so I'm sharing with you. Ok, I wiould admit it's not perfect but very appropriate.

An award should go to the Virgin Airlines desk attendant in Sydney some months ago for being smart and funny, while making her point, when confronted with a passenger who probably deserved to fly as cargo.

A crowded Virgin flight was canceled after Virgin's 767s had been withdrawn from service. A single attendant was re-booking a long line of inconvenienced travelers. Suddenly an angry passenger pushed his way to the desk. He slapped his ticket down on the counter and said,
"I HAVE to be on this flight and it HAS to be FIRST CLASS".

The attendant replied, "I'm sorry, sir. I'll be happy to try to help you, but I've got to help these people first, and I'm sure we'll be able to work something out.."

The passenger was unimpressed. He asked loudly, so that the passengers behind him could hear,"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I AM?"

Without hesitating, the attendant smiled and grabbed her public address microphone:"May I have your attention please, may I have your attention please," she began - her voice heard clearly throughout the terminal.

"We have a passenger here at Desk 14 WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHO HE IS. If anyone can help him find his identity, please come to Desk 14."

With the folks behind him in line laughing hysterically, the man glared at the Virgin attendant, gritted his teeth and said, "F... You!"

Without flinching, she smiled and said, (I love this bit) "I'm sorry, sir, but you'll have to get in line for that too."

Don't Read This If You Are Totally Satisfied With Life

A Story I Read Today That Is Worth Sharing. Self Examination and Taking Action In Your Life.

MY FRIDAY STORY
LIFE'S INVENTORY
By William Lambert

So you have been living for 40 or 50 or 60 years. What do you have to show for it? What comes to your mind first? Your children? Your house? your car? Were your children an accomplishment or an accident? Should a spouse who loves you be listed in your inventory?

I did this inventory 10 years after I have been teaching school. I personally felt my inventory was not what it should be. I had a car and an apartment. I wanted a family and a house. I changed my behavior in an attempt to get those things.

Ten years later I felt that this was not enough. A wife and kids for me was not enough for my inventory. A new direction had to be derived. I spent much time in determining what truly makes me happy. I discovered that what really made me happy was helping other people.

My inventory includes letters from three people whose life I saved using my CPR skills. A distinguished teacher award. College Degrees, Letters from students that say without my influence they would never have attended college.

Action Step. Do your life's Inventory. Try to add things that cannot be taken away from you. Certificates, Degrees, and Marketable Skills that you enjoy. Do not focus on material things.

Action Step. Discover the joy of helping others. Share your skills, your knowledge, your understandings with others. Do this without seeking credit or anything in return.

Action Step. Look at your resume. Rewrite it as if you have accomplished more. Then work on making it happen. Never think the thought that "I am too old." There exist a list of people that were over 60 before they achieved their major accomplishments. The greatest joy in my life is when I received an E Mail stating that I helped someone change their behavior.

Action Step. Please note that you don't necessarily help someone if you give them material things. You really help when you teach them how to get their own and/or when you cause them to change behavior.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mr. Lambert has a Bachelor's degree from Lemoyne-Owen College in Biology and Chemistry, a Master's degree in Education, from Memphis State University, and he finished all the course work on a Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction with a minor in Physics Education. He is a former teacher where he won the prestigious Distinguished Teacher Award. Mr. Lambert has made teaching his life. You can reach him at wlambert7@comcast.net

I hope you enjoyed that story. I did.

The point is what can you take away from a story like this? Well, it makes you at least...

Look at what motivates your life. Is it the desire to get more, be more or share what you have acquired over the years. We all have stories, something to share that no one else can in the way that you can. Are you sharing it?

More importantly what action can you take to turn your life into the person you dream you can and should be? Do you need to return to school? To learn a skill or give of yourself?

Whether you think you can or can't; it's true.

Live life by enjoying it.

The Offer Below Is Exclusively
For Businesses In Trinidad And Tobago

Are You Guilty Of This?

“Every truth has two sides; it is as well to look at both, before we commit ourselves to either” Aesop Quotes

This has nothing and everything to do with marketing, it's totally about who we are as enlightened humans being in a world that we have created.

Sometimes as business people we need to step back from whatever we are engaged in and evaluate ourselves. We need to examine what we are doing to our reputation and character by the little decisions we make in our daily lives. By themselves they are by no means life changing decisions but they always define who we are and how the rest of the world perceives us.

It's the little things in life that really count. Like how some people behave with a waiter/waitress in restaurants that gives invaluable insight into their own character. In business, these same behaviors determines how we are perceived by others.

Our word, that is our oral promise should be "as good as gold" or even paper money.

Of course we must always leave allowances for the unexpected, it’s why pencils are built with erasers because everyone make mistakes: in judgment on completion times, returning calls, emails, meetings or even promises for payment. As humans, we plan and it is said that "God laughs" at our plans, but that's no excuse not to communicate.

Communicating after making an oral promise is not something we do "if we have the time" but should become a personal obligation/commitment to, at a minimum, explain why we could not or did do what we promised to do. The promise does not evaporate into the universe, being known as not having a "good word" destroys the character.

Allow me to put it into perspective. This came up because of the experiences I have had recently with web designers in and outside of Trinidad. Yes, consider this a request for your services if you meets the criteria below.

You may or may not be aware, I have been in a continuous search for a Web designer/developer for the last couple of months after a very strange experience with someone I trusted. I will not go into that here but suffice it to say that has happened was surprising and an enlightening experience which I will share in another post. It's no wonder that the web design/development industry continues to be so nefarious with a saturation of wannabe designers who all claim to be able to build anything. There are designers and Designers.

What am I looking for? Not much. A designer for sure but there are other qualities that, after my experience, are much more important. I call it character. Fortunately we all have one.

But before we go there, let me share some background so you can appreciate
why the urgent need for a designer with certain predispositions.

Team players

In my function as a Business Web Coach assisting business owners to establish their web presence, it’s essential that I have a pool of designers/Developers to design websites for clients.

The coaching includes all aspects of web development starting with the initial concept, story board, structure, copy, business model innovation, traffic generation and one-on-one or group training after the launch. The intent is to bring to the table online experience and marketing strategies to develop a viable revenue generating web site for the business.

My plan is to host a one day seminar titled "Getting Started Online" This seminar promises to embed a marketing mindset into the participants enabling them with foundational knowledge to establish their web presence and possibly a web site.

With the web coaching service I prefer to begin at the concept stage and not have to do an extreme marketing makeover on a website that is already published. I know very little about web design, coding or graphic design. It is therefore very important that I work with a web designer. But not just any designer, I'm looking for designers with two enduring qualities apart from their ability to design a professional web site:

Professional Integrity

This requirement is at the top because it is extremely important the designer/developer understand that this can make or break our relationship. This has nothing to do with being a honest person but more with character. In my humble opinion, behavior as described above does not show a lack of character because whatever they do is their character. It demonstrates a blatant disrespect for the value of "their word" when given as a promise.

From time immemorial oral communication has initiated business it's indeed a sad day when everything must be in writing. Imagine putting a simple promise like, "I'll call you" in writing.

Mind you, this relates not only to designers/developers but too many professionals are beginning to behave like politicians and lawyers. Granted, It may be a little thing to some people but expeditiously making repeated unfulfilled promises is wrong. Not only wrong in business but in any social setting.

If you are a designer and you don't agree, I'm so glad you are reading this because I hope I never do business with you.

Experience and Creativity

The designer must be self motivated and creative. He/she must be able to reproduce an idea and essentially make it look good online. The nature of the industry, i.e. overpopulated with semi-professionals, makes it important that the designers/developers have a registered company and preferably a design staff.

There skill must include all the necessary coding capability to develop a self contained eCommerce site with content management system and accommodate a merchant account platform. I am also looking for someone with an entrepreneurial spirit, someone who is willing to invest in their own future and to gain experience in developing websites that generate revenue.

If you meet these requirements, I would love to speak with you, send me an email.

In the interim, because of my experience I have used my limited knowledge to host my domain on a wordpress blog platform. If you are serious about online marketing click over to the blog, review it and make a comment or give some feedback. Done without the aid of a designer, it's not professional but it meets my needs until better can be done. Take a look at it and leave some feedback. You can find it at Here

Leh We Bet Ah Blue Nah...

“A penny saved is a penny earned.” Unk.

How would it feel to have a quick $100TTD in your pocket? If your answer is not good, stop reading, this is not for you.

If, however, you live and have a business in Trinidad you may pick up an easy hundred for a few minutes of reading a 30 page report written for Trinidad and Tobago businesses. The word "may" is used because; honestly, the bet is that you don’t.

This Caribbean Blogger post is being written for Trinbago readers. The offer is for any Trinbagoian living here and can still appreciate the value of a blue note. Like we say here “Eh much buh is sometin”.

If you have been tagged on FB, it’s because as a friend your profile indicates that you may be interested in knowing about this. I could be wrong, I have been there before. People are different, so if you totally dislike being tagged like this, please send a private message and it will not happen again. OK, let's get to the point.

Guerilla Consulting Limited, has just established a Fan page on Facebook Trinbago Web Coaching. The intention is to provide online marketing intelligence specifically for Trinidad and Tobago business owners. There are quite a few links on there right now.

The business fan page provides a portal for T&T business owners to get exposed to a variety of marketing tips, software, tools and programmes useful to any business wishing to firmly establish an internet presence.

The offer is really a bet. More like a challenge to the first 3 Trinbagoians who can prove that they know everything contained in a soon-to-be-published Special Report. OK this may attract some serious Trini online marketers so that is the reason why the offer is limited to only 3 people living in T&T.

Let me repeat it, one blue note, $100TTD, to the first 3 people who can prove that they learned absolutely nothing from this report. Fortunately he only way to do that is to read it. For anyone, this is a win-win situation, in fact better than free. If you don’t get the blue note you will get a few usable -ideas.



What this really means to you is that there must be value in the report because honestly; paying out $300 is not the intention of this campaign. The report is entitled “How to Establish a Professional Web Presence for $70 TTD in less than 90 days”. But there is more...

You also get an absolutely priceless eBook published by one of the internet’s most informed and active online marketing coaches. Rich Schefren. “The Internet Manifesto” is an must read for anyone wanting to know before they go building a web site.

Whether you have a site now or not, if you sincerely want to establish a business on the net I strongly recommend that you read the Internet Manifsto eBook. It will shift your paradigm about what it takes to establish an internet business. Rich Schefren pulls no punches; he is honest and straight forward. If you are really committed to being successful online, get AND read this eBook now.

Get it by usng the sign up form on this blog or you can go here.