Well, another milestone down! We are so excited that our website is now officially launched - www.truckermanagement.com. It provides a detailed overview of the book, some of our training seminar and keynote descriptions and more information about us. Soon you will also be able to pre-order copies of the book through the site as well. Thanks to the team at Inter Kingston for their expertise in getting the site finished.
We also started our "world tour" last week in Brantford, Ontario. We have World Tour t-shirts highlighting the cities we'll be visiting during our international book launch and training tour that you can buy too! We're still looking for more cities to add to the tour, so any help you can provide, we'll gladly take you up on it.
The book is finally off to the publisher too - so it's been a crazy few months - but we've hit the road at full speed and are gearing up for the official launch in early September. The next stop on the World Tour is Atlanta at the end of July.
Lastly, remember that we frequently update our small business blog with short tips and tricks for small business - so visit it often http://igniteyoursmallbiz.blogspot.com. So we'll keep you posted as the time draws closer, but look for official book launch events in the fall!
Lindsey Fair and Matt Hutcheon
Policing Your First Impressions
I would never have thought that as I was being given my $300 ticket by the police officer yesterday morning on the side of the highway, that the polite, respectful manner in which he addressed me, and the time he took to explain clearly my options, would be the customer service highlight of my day.
When I arrived at my destination a few hours later, a hotel where I was to give a training session related to Trucker Management to a group of JCI members from across Ontario, I went to the front desk and said "You have a JCI Conference here this weekend?", expecting that the clerk would provide me the name of the meeting room. Instead, I was answered with a shrug of the shoulders and a smirk that could only be interpreted as "I don't know." That's all. No "I'm not sure, let me check for you." Nothing.
Thankfully, a maintenance worker was closeby, and heard me ask, and as the desk clerk continued on with her other work without answering my question, he gave me the name of the room.
When a ticket-issuing police officer beats your business for the feeling of "welcome" someone enjoys, you have some work to do! Make sure to properly police the first impressions your staff are giving your visitors.
When I arrived at my destination a few hours later, a hotel where I was to give a training session related to Trucker Management to a group of JCI members from across Ontario, I went to the front desk and said "You have a JCI Conference here this weekend?", expecting that the clerk would provide me the name of the meeting room. Instead, I was answered with a shrug of the shoulders and a smirk that could only be interpreted as "I don't know." That's all. No "I'm not sure, let me check for you." Nothing.
Thankfully, a maintenance worker was closeby, and heard me ask, and as the desk clerk continued on with her other work without answering my question, he gave me the name of the room.
When a ticket-issuing police officer beats your business for the feeling of "welcome" someone enjoys, you have some work to do! Make sure to properly police the first impressions your staff are giving your visitors.
Battery failure!
One of our previous posts was about your small business "battery", or your contingencies you have in place to fall back on when "normal" things fail.
I saw firsthand a perfect example of a battery failing at one of my clients' the other day. They had a problem with their credit card processing terminal one evening, and had about 8 or 9 charges that they had to take manually. When they attempted to run them through the next day once the terminal was working, they found out that two didn't have all the information they needed. The staff had neglected to take down the final four numbers of the card in one instance, and the expiry date in the other.
So, as a result of this business not having it's "battery" properly charged by way of their staff all being properly trained on how to take down a manual credit card charge, this business was out $134!
Not only do you have to have the back-up plan in place (ie. take card info manually when the terminal goes down), but your staff all need to be properly trained in how to use it!
I saw firsthand a perfect example of a battery failing at one of my clients' the other day. They had a problem with their credit card processing terminal one evening, and had about 8 or 9 charges that they had to take manually. When they attempted to run them through the next day once the terminal was working, they found out that two didn't have all the information they needed. The staff had neglected to take down the final four numbers of the card in one instance, and the expiry date in the other.
So, as a result of this business not having it's "battery" properly charged by way of their staff all being properly trained on how to take down a manual credit card charge, this business was out $134!
Not only do you have to have the back-up plan in place (ie. take card info manually when the terminal goes down), but your staff all need to be properly trained in how to use it!
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