Last week, my family and I went to Eurodisney. It was a great week and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

One of the things that made it such a brilliant holiday was the attention to detail employed by Disney.

It’s nice to see a company willing to go the extra mile (and more) to make sure that the visit is not just great, but brilliant.

How many times in your working day do you hear yourself saying ‘I’ll just get this done quickly and move on to the next task’ - sometimes there isn’t enough time to go the extra mile.

Well, here’s the bad news. You need to make the time. Going the extra mile (especially in the current economic climate) is a sure way of keeping customers. Not bothering is a sure way of losing them.

So here’s the challenge for the next seven days:

“Go the extra mile with every customer you interact with”

Make time and you’ll be surprised at the results.

D.

We are launching a new web site designed to help small businesses to win on the web.

It’s going to contain articles, this blog and access to our newsletters.

I’ll be posting more in a week or so!

D.

We now have our support ticket system up and running.

This means that emails to support@maximumwebprofits.co.uk will be fed into the support ticket system and processed accordingly by Charlotte, Jamie, Claire or I.

We’ve noticed that there have been several instances of emails going astray which has resulted in a slower response to our clients. By using the ticket system, every email coming in will receive an immediate electronic response.

If this response is not received within 3 to 5 minutes of sending the email then we have not received it. This should be a valuable method for clients to ensure that we do receive the emails.

This is a big step forward to maximise our support capabilities and deliver an even better service.

If you have any questions, please email to support@maximumwebprofits.co.uk.

Thank you.
D.

Skype is a voice over IP service. It’s probably the World’s best known VOIP service.

Is it any good? Well, yes I think it is.

We use it and it provides a basic solution for text and voice communications.

You can easily open a text window that allows you to type a message for any one of the people in your address book. This is just like a text message except it is easier to type!

Voice communication is clear even from country to country. I speak to a friend in Spain as if he was standing in the same room.

And here’s the good bit…

Skype supports a web cam. This means that video calling is a reality and provides a great way of communicating.

Having said all this - there is one downside…

Skype went offline for several days in August. It was deemed to be a software conflict between Skype and Microsoft.

This outage affected most of it’s members and meant that Skype as a primary communication tool was flawed. The lesson here is to always have a back up method of communication and never rely on 100% uptime.

Go on … give it a try.

Skype Website

D.

After some discussion, we’ve decided to set up our own freephone number. This means our clients and prospects can call us without incurring any cost.

We currently use 0870 numbers for the office and direct dial to our employees.

This is ok, but we’ve had negative feedback that clients and prospects are not prepared to call an 0870 number because they perceive it as a ‘premium rate number’.

This is not correct (a call to an 0870 number is charged at national rates), but it’s the perception that counts.

From the 1st September, we will have two main incoming numbers. There will be a standard 01905 number direct to the office and a freephone number that will go via an electronic switchboard.

The electronic switchboard will allow us to transfer incoming calls and therefore allocate the call to the best person to answer them.

Previously, our voicemail was active during the day and I don’t think this is a professional way to present the business.

We will be sending out a letter containing our new numbers towards the end of August. In the meantime, please use the normal numbers.

I look forward to speaking to you.
D.

We use an online project manager to keep focused on our projects.

It’s brilliant and means that we have ‘live’ info on every project 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

And clients have access too. That’s a real leveller. When you know someone else is watching, it spurs you on to get things done.

The online project manager runs from any browser and can be easily accessed using a username and password.

I estimate it has enabled us to knock 25 to 50% off projects just by focusing the client and ourselves on what needs doing.

And that means less cost for the client and projects delivered to the exact client needs.

Until next time,
D.