National Customer Service Week Promotion

Further to my post last month this week it is National Customer Service Week (visit http://www.nationalcustomerserviceweek.com/Default.aspx for more information).

As a special promotion we are offering a 25% discount to customers for any bookings taken this week.   So if you need some secretarial or admin tasks doing please get in touch – we are happy to help.

What is your business going to be doing for the week?  Here are some ideas:

• Throw open your doors to your customers and invite them behind the scenes (our local council in Bradford is doing this)
• Conduct a survey with your customers asking them for their feedback on your service – you may be surprised by the results!
• Offer a discount or gift with purchases
• Motivate your staff with a promotion to encourage good service
• If you are a boss get back to the shop floor and interact with your customers directly
• Invite your staff to pitch ideas for improving customer service and implement the best ones (you could do a Dragons Den style to create a little fun!)
• Think of the customers in your business - perhaps other departments who are internal customers and deliver extra special service for the week
• Some of the best ideas come from children – invite their ideas and ask them to get involved
• Send out a special bulletin or newsletter about the week and highlight good service delivered in the past year
• Feedback is two way – if you are brave!  Tell your customers “What makes a good customer”
• For every 100th or 1000th customer (or pick a suitable number) award an on the spot prize
• Have a supply of gold stars in a central work area and ask staff to award the stars to other staff members when they spot good service
• Wear badges or T Shirts about the week to encourage awareness
• Display promotional literature about the week in your reception areas

Of course if we can be of help then contact us or if you have some ideas please post them here for other people to view!

Digital Dictation and Transcription Equipment

Going digital with your dictation is a smart move.  Transferring to digital with your dictation from the old style of using cassette tapes makes life much easier for your secretary and for yourself.  Whilst there is an initial outlay the long term benefits make this a wise investment.  Some of the key advantages are:

• Quality is superior and it saves times
• Dictate away from your desk
• Eliminates the need for individual tapes
• Can be voice activated thereby avoiding those long silences
• Faster and easier to transfer work to your secretary and add additional voice instructions
• The transcriptionist is able to manage different recordings much more easily
• Sound quality can be enhanced when transcribing
• You can record for much longer time spans
• You can work hands free
• Edit your voice file to add in further comments for those moments when you forgot to say something
• Much easier and quicker to send files to your secretary via the web

But which equipment to choose for your dictation?   Here is a little list:

• Personal handhold devices which you use with a USB to interact with your PC
• Dictate directly into your computer
• Pocket handheld PC or Smartphone
• Dictate into a telephone
• Dictate via the internet from anywhere in the world
• Desk microphone, good for conference meetings

Perhaps you are a writer that wants to record your thoughts whilst on location, a scientist recording notes at a conference or a surveyor wanting a record of your site visit, going digitial with your dictation enables you to have that option.  Making the transfer will enhance your workflow and of course you are able to transfer files easily to a firm like ourselves to be transcribed! 

If you need help on this subject or would like to talk to us about outsourcing your transcription work please contact us.

Getting Your Finances In Order

Whether you are a business or a private individual it has never been more important to ensure your finances are in order.  Save the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves is one of the truest mottos there is.

We help clients issue invoices, chase payments and reconcile them.  We came across a recent web tool which perhaps is beneficial for individuals if you need that “kickstart” to improving your finances.  It is called PocketSmith and the link is at the end of this post.

It works like a web calendar and perhaps helps make the task of addressing your figures and finances a little more interesting.   You put in your scheduled payments, alter for special events, upload your accounts and it provides a forecast of how financially healthy you are looking.  It shows you the impact interest rates might have and it comes with interactive graphs to bring your figures to life. 

One of the things I like is how it demonstrates a year’s worth of coffee (or any other little luxury!) impacts on your figures.   Perhaps good for the diet as well!

The link to view the product is http://www.pocketsmith.com/

National Customer Service Week

National Customer Service Week is on 5th – 11th October.  It is a chance to celebrate good service within your business and useful for engaging with customers new and old about how you rate as a business and how you could improve.   It is also an opportunity to involve employees in a practical way.

There are some good ideas on the Institute of Customer Service Website – http://www.nationalcustomerserviceweek.com/Default.aspx  You can also register your business, receive a certificate to display and start the ball rolling with ideas and actions to make the most of the week.  Business at the moment is very competitive but doing something positive like this can give you that edge and certain je ne sais quois?  (And apart from zut alors that is about all the French I know!)

Office Boutique

I have always felt that a note to a friend, employee, customer or supplier is a really nice to thing to receive and even better if it comes with your signature and some hand written personal notes added.  It can get your message across in a personal and warm way.

With this in mind we have recently ventured into selling business greeting cards to help our customers to be more organised within the office at home or at their business. Our online shop is called Office Boutique and can be found at Etsy (the marketplace for handmade items). The shop site is www.officeboutique.etsy.com  We design and hand finish the cards. Please order via Etsy or get in touch if you require a customised item.

We will also be venturing into selling social stationery paper products and bespoke office stationery paper products for business, if there is something you would like us to source or stock please get in touch.

Happy Birthday PowerPoint – 25 years old!

PowerPoint has been around for 25 years as this interesting article from the BBC News Magazine Website shows

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8207849.stm

We compile some PowerPoint presentations for our clients and try to give them that extra polish.  As shown in the article PowerPoint is not universally loved and this can be because slides have too much text content.  The best PowerPoint presentations contain music, movement, video, images and minimal text.  Keep the text for your handouts (and hand them out at the end or in various stages otherwise your audience then start shuffling the papers of the full handout while you speak!)

The best presentation is where the focus is on the speaker and PowerPoint is there to act a backdrop highlight.  If we can help with any of your presentations in any way please get in touch.

Stylish Office Stationery

I am thinking of gifts in advance for Christmas (yes I know it is early but I also have to think for some of our clients as well!). 

I recently came across the stationery and paper product line by Cavallini & Co, a company based in San Francisco, USA who produce very stylish but functional paper stationery.  As gifts for clients/friends or maybe for your own personal use they create a striking impression.  Here is an image of one of their sticky notes which has a Paris design.

Cavallini Paris Sticky Note

You can see their full range on their website http://www.cavallini.com with details of where you can buy them (they don’t sell directly to the public).  Maybe selling stationery is something we should start to add to our service and product line at Your Admin Assistant?  We do currently source stationery for clients but perhaps it is something to consider that we sell direct as a stand alone service.

In the meantime I recommend a look at their product range, it will help you complete your admin tasks in a more beautiful way!

What Makes A Good Business Supplier?

What determines a good supplier, for me there are 5 simple criteria that we work to:

• Quotes a clear price
• Supplies the work on time
• Acts in a cheerful, honest and helpful manner
• Over time helps the customer with any process improvements
• Conducts business confidentially and fairly

Since Your Admin Assistant started over 3 years ago we have worked with some customers that have been with us since the start so we must be doing something right!  Over time I think we have become more of a business partner with our earlier customers helping them to grow and improve with their business.

If we can help your business improve and flourish with any of the work we do please get in touch.  We are happy to provide testimonials from happy clients.

What Is In A Name?

In doing some work for a client this week I came across an intriguing business website called “Men With Pens” – www.menwithpens.ca Their main business service is copywriting which was started by 3 guys hence the title!

When I started Your Admin Assistant I wanted a name that customers would be able to quickly identify as to what we do, it has had this effect and I think we have gained business from it.  There is however one downside and that is because of the name we are generally towards the bottom of any directory listing!

I remember I also considered Your Perfect Secretary however I decided against this idea.  After all we are all human and the odd error could happen and I can just imagine the conversation from someone to me, if an error did occur, along the lines of “I don’t think you are my idea of a Perfect Secretary”.  Not much escape from that is there when the call comes?

Finally another website I came across over a year ago which has an interesting name and has quite a cult following particularly in the US  – www.cookingforengineers.com  It is a fascinating and informative site for anyone who has an analytical mind and likes to cook hence again the title!  From time to time I myself like to visit the site for ideas and it has good reviews on kitchen equipment and tools.

The Recruitment Process

So this week has been interesting - we had a client who rang for some help with a powerpoint presentation for an interview and and separately we had an enquiry from a company to help with their admin in relation to CV’s, candidates and letters.

We helped the client previously with their CV and he rang to say he had secured an interview and would like some help with a 10 minute presentation he had been asked to prepare.  One of the interesting things about the whole recruitment process is that it is not only the candidate that has to impress to secure that job but as the enquiry from the company showed it is also about the company wanting to put their business forward in the best light in order to attract and secure good candidates.

The new Asda store in Keighley attracted 3000 applicants for 300 jobs – some of those applicants will be customers or potential customers and how they are treated in the recruitment process can help or hinder business for that store and the company.

If you feel you would like some help preparing for an interview and require some extra polish with your work or you are a business that would like help with your recruitment admin to add some professional sparkle to the process then please contact me.