Action Coach Portsmouth

Action Coach Portsmouth

Chloe Smith

Creating customer loyalty

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Creating customer loyalty isn’t something which can be done overnight. It’s a gradual process of turning initial prospects into shoppers, customers, and ultimately raving fans. But what exactly is the ladder of loyalty and how can you build it?

The Ladder of Loyalty

To explain the concept of the ladder of loyalty it might be helpful to imagine people climbing a steep ladder. These people range from those who you could do business with – they’re on the bottom rung (step) – right up to those you who you regularly do repeat business with and who actively recommend you to their friends and family. Their position on the ladder reflects their level of engagement with you and the value they create.

The seven rungs of the ladder

The ladder of loyalty consists of seven rungs – in other words your customer database is broken down into seven levels according to their loyalty to your business:

  • Suspect – The bottom rung of the ladder are termed as suspects. They’re businesses which fit into your target market but haven’t engaged with you yet.
  • Prospect – Once a potential customer becomes interested in your business and becomes a lead, they climb one rung of the ladder and become a prospect.
  • Shopper – Shoppers occupy the third rung of the ladder. They’ve bought from you, but haven’t committed to further purchases.
  • Customer – A shopper becomes a customer when they’re a consistent buyer – a repeat customer.
  • Members – Members belong to the next rung of the ladder. They’re repeat buyers who have developed a business relationship with you, and in return you offer discounts, loyalty packages and incentives to keep their business.
  • Advocate – An advocate promotes your business through word of mouth referrals or testimonials. They’re delighted with the service or products they’ve received and mention you in day-to-day conversations.
  • Raving Fan – The very top rung of the ladder and the ultimate achievement in terms of growing your business. Raving fans actively promote you at all times. They can’t stop singing your praises. They name drop your business whenever the opportunity arises.

Climbing the ladder

Having established the seven rungs of the ladder, you now need to determine the number of contacts you currently have at each rung, and implement strategies for them to climb the ladder.

Think about how many shoppers you have compared to the number of customers. How many regularly purchase from you?

From the customer level, what types of incentives could you offer to make people really feel wanted and therefore become members, or even advocates? Think about loyalty cards, membership packs, rebooking schemes etc. – the extra things which would make them happy to recommend you to their neighbours, their friends, their family.

How could you turn these advocates into raving fans, the customers who now have essentially become an extension of your sales force? They bring in new customers who may even climb straight up to level four of the ladder without you having to do a thing!

Your challenge

The challenge I’d like to leave you with is to study the area of your business, and the rungs of the ladder, you need to focus on the most. Think about the numbers on each rung and then devise strategies for promoting them to the next level.

If you’d like some help with this, or would like some extra advice on how to set about the process of enabling suspects through to raving fans climb your ladder of loyalty, we’d love to hear from you. Please feel free to get in touch.

The Moment of Truth

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The moment of truth is a concept which refers to a moment of interacting with a customer that can change or form an opinion about our products or services. Whilst you may have many interaction points along a customer journey, not all of them will significantly impact your success. Therefore, you need to create your own personal moment of truth in which to leave a favourable impression.

A moment of truth example

Today we’re going to be discussing the moment of truth, and in particular during the sales process. Do you know when exactly in your sales process you actually change the perspective of a prospect? If you’re able to carry out a competitor analysis, can you determine how long it takes your competitors to respond to a new enquiry? How long does it take to make that lasting impression?

Why do moments of truth matter?

Quite simply, if you understand your moments of truth, you’ll recognise opportunities to improve your customers experiences and working relationships with your business. Not only does this help to give you more of a competitive advantage in the market, but it should also translate into a greater number of repeat customers. Identifying your own personal moments of truth and acting upon them should be a priority in building lifetime client value.

Challenge yourself

Think about how you and your team communicate with both prospects and customers. Do you always adopt the same tired approach regardless of the size and nature of a customer? Could your customers honestly say that you always go the extra mile or provide a truly personal touch to your service?

Do you always keep your promises towards your client? Do you keep them informed of progress even when there may be little to update them with? If you say you’ll get back to them within 24 hours, can they be absolutely certain that you’ll keep to your word?

Doing what we say we will do and also doing it with the timeframe given are massive moments of truth for any business. These are the points along the interactive journey which really matter. Loyalty, trust, respect and total customer satisfaction are built upon these.

Now that we’ve emphasised the importance of moments of truth, you need to go back to basics and identify where exactly you need to improve your service. Is there a point in the sales process where the chain of great communication breaks down and customers are left hanging, waiting for your call?

Whether you’re trying to change a suspect into a prospect, or a customer into an advocate or raving fan, the principle is exactly the same. Analyse the areas of weakness within all customer journeys. Put yourself in the shoes of these suspects, prospects and customers. Are they really receiving the best service your company is able to offer?

If you’d like to dig a little deeper into the concept of moment of truth and need tailor made help or advice, our team would love to hear from you. Please feel free to get in touch.

Mental Health Awareness Week 2022

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This week is Mental Health Awareness Week 2022, hosted by the Mental Health Foundation, and is an opportunity for everyone to focus on achieving good mental health. The annual event is running for seven days from 9th – 15th May and this year’s theme is ‘Loneliness’.

Being a business owner can be lonely. No one to bounce ideas off or share challenges with. It’s important to be aware of your mental health and do what you can to avoid loneliness.

So, we’ve pulled together seven tips to help reduce loneliness and improve your mental health:

Get outside

Taking a step away from your desk, site, shop, salon, whatever your work looks like…can make all the difference to your stress levels. It can help break a cycle so you return to work feeling replenished and ready to tackle your tasks with a fresh head.

Make time for face-to-face

Online meetings have their place (and never more so than the past two years) but meeting someone face-to-face and having social interaction is what we as humans are good at.

Stay connected

It’s important to keep in touch with your team and make time for that coffee break, or catch up. And even more so if you or your team are working from home. Touching base with each other means you’ll be able to pick up on how you’re all feeling and alleviate feelings of isolation.

Make time for you

Whether it’s during your working day or outside of work, making time for you by doing the things you enjoy is key. Perhaps sitting on the seafront with a book, or going for a walk in the woods is the thing that takes you away from everyday stresses and let’s you lose yourself for a while.

Find your community

Finding a community who can support you, and vice versa, can make all the difference to your journey. It might be an online community through a Facebook group or a local networking group, find people who are experiencing the same highs and lows as you.

Prioritise your relationships

This applies for relationships both inside and outside of work. Building relationships and improving communication with your team is an important part of running a business. And it goes without saying that prioritising your relationships with friends and family can help you feel well-rounded and balanced.

Share your struggles

Whether you choose to speak to friends, family, colleagues, your community or a business coach, sharing your struggles can help lift a weight off your shoulders. Particularly when people in your community or your business coach can actually help you overcome that problem.

If you’re wondering what a business coach does or how we can help you, please do get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.

Recognising and confronting your FEARS

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Today we’re going to be looking at something very specific – False Expectation Appearing Real – which as you’ll probably know is an easy to remember acronym for FEAR.

Recognising your FEARS

Being fearful of something happens to all of us on a regular basis, especially in a business context. Will taking on an extra member of staff really lead to an increase in sales? What if it doesn’t work out?

FEAR can easily have a snowball effect, building up deep levels of anxiety that affect everyone. It then becomes extremely negative and holds both the business and the individual back. Recognising your fears is important. What happens when you start becoming fearful of something? Are you able to understand your particular behaviour traits so that you can confront and put a stop to them?

Confronting your FEARS

When we’re faced with difficult decisions or worried about things which are out of our control, it’s helpful to remember the point of our FEAR acronym – A False Expectation Appearing Real. Yes, fear is false. It may be human nature to worry about the unexpected, but if we start to think about it logically, why do we spend so much time worrying about the things we have little control over? We need to face our fears and move past them.

Working on your FEAR through coaching

As coaches, we consider facing fears as real opportunities for growth. We challenge our clients on their thinking and work with them to plan tailor made solutions.
Let’s face it, if you want to build a stronger, more robust organisation that’s able to withstand the ups and downs of your industry sector, you really do need to let go of some of the fears that are currently holding you back.

Think about the last time you were really fearful about something and it panned out in the way you feared? Did you behave in the way you planned? More often than not our responses are an inbuilt reaction. We react to what we are given. Fear is a powerful illusion, but one which you can overcome.

We realise just how easy it is to become our own worst enemy and we can help you to plant helpful, constructive thoughts as opposed to continually tying yourself in knots worrying about things of little value. In short, we can help you transform your mindset around FEAR and in turn also help you to transform your business.

If you’re struggling with overcoming your workplace fears, and you’d like specialist help and advice, we’d love to hear from you. Feel free to get in touch with the team.

Why are strategic reviews important?

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It’s been, and is continuing to be, a difficult time for many businesses. It’s highly likely your business has been affected by some form of strategic shift.

Strategic reviewing is a key skill, yet many businesses seem either unaware of how unexpected changes can affect their long-term plans, or how to adapt, evolve and respond.

So, today we’re looking at strategic reviews and the important areas to address when aiming to make your business more effective.

What is a strategic review?

A strategic review is a process to discuss goals and objectives, and make any necessary adjustments. It’s a recipe for creating opportunity that should include the following ingredients:

  • Improving performance
  • Taking advantage of new opportunities
  • Identifying and acting on challenges
  • Financial drivers

Your strategic landscape

Knowing where to start your strategic review is important. We suggest you first take time to step back and look at whether your strategic plan is still relevant. Think about your vision and your values, as well as your objectives, targets and initiatives. Have these been impacted by disruption? Are you still on course to achieve those targets?

Reviewing your plans

Your business strategy needs to include in depth analysis of your market and your positioning within it. Key areas to look at are market growth, the future outlook and key aspects which may impact it – new products, technology, competitor knowledge, etc.

When did you last take time to discover new things about your competitors? What are they doing, and what strategies does your business need to be able to compete long-term?

Secondly, you need to take into account the way you organise your business. How effective are your processes and procedures? You’ll need to consider both threats and opportunities and be prepared for them. If you were to put in place a concrete foundation to cover the next three to five years, what does it need to do? Is there anything you could add to your business to make it stronger? Where do you need to diversify?

Thirdly, you need to consider financial aspects. What are the key drivers of your financial performance? If your strategy requires extra capital, how would you fund it?

A goal without a plan is just a dream

As coaches we understand how difficult it can be to allocate time to plan and review your strategies. There’s some great books and educational resources on this subject which we can talk to you more about. We can also personally support you in assessing your business aspirations. Feel free to call us on 02392 454 111, or get in touch if you’d like help in achieving your goals.

Amberley Security’s journey

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Hearing about someone’s coaching journey is invaluable. Everyone has a story. A story of when they decided that something needed to change, and why they chose to invest in a business coach.

And we can keep telling you the reasons why investing in a business coach can change your life, but we know hearing someone’s first-hand experience can mean so much more.

So, we’ve asked our clients to tell you their journey into coaching with us and the impact its had on not only their business, but their personal lives too.

Next up, Scott Andrews, Director of Amberley Security…

When did you decide you wanted a business coach?

We’d been surviving since the credit crunch, holding our own, not growing but not contracting either. However, we were having one poor year. I received a mailshot from ActionCOACH and decided I’d have an exploratory chat with Steve. That went well and I liked the idea, but really, I couldn’t justify the expense at that time.

A few months later, things hadn’t really improved, and I was chatting with another business owner, who suggested that I look at coaching. I decided there that something needed to change, so I would find the money.

Why did you choose to work with us?

During my first chat with Steve, I was impressed with both his knowledge and his empathy. It is often said that people buy from people, and that was definitely the case with me.

What impact has business coaching had on your business, and your life?

Working with initially Steve, and subsequently Sarah, we have transformed the foundation of the company. We now have more vital information about the financial performance of the company than ever before, and are using that to drive forward.

Personally, although I have always maintained a good work/life balance, I am now able to take more holidays away from the company, to the extent that we went away in all the school holidays in 2021.

For those who don’t know, tell us about your company

Amberley Security supplies and installs all types of security equipment and systems, ranging from a simple lock, through to a complex access control or CCTV system. Essentially, we install whatever it takes to protect your property. We’ve been in business for 95 years, and looking forward to the next 95!

What is the next step for your business?

Now is the time to fly. We will grow the company, become financially secure, and expand more fully into alarms, CCTV and the burgeoning Home Automation market.

If you are interested in achieving any of the above outcomes, we’d love to hear from you. Please feel free to give us a call on 02392 454 111 or complete this form and a member of the team will be in touch.

To read other clients’ journeys, check out Havant Sheet Metal and Northface Connections Ltd blog.