Woolworths have recently released their annual results for 2009/10. Within this set of outstanding results is the outlined strategy for 2010/11, which is readily available on the Woolworths Holdings website. I was delighted to see the top 3 out of 9 retail priorities as follows:-
1. Customer Insights
2. Loyalty Programme
3. Online strategy
4.......
Simon Susman's recent interview on World at 6 with Bruce Whitfield illustrates how a retailer can truly maximise its profits through customer centricity versus a retailer's traditional product led strategy.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
There is no space in your certainty for me to be heard!
“There’s no space in your certainty for my voice to be heard!”
I recently attended a lunchtime workshop presentation on Neuroleadership at Graduate School of Business at University of Cape Town. I was left with an outstanding quote: “there’s no space in your certainty for me to be heard”. How true this is if someone is confident, has zest, energy & confidence?…..whilst all these factors are positive, it can leave others feeling inadequate. I hear Marianne Williamson’s ‘A return to love’ and Nelson Mandela’s reference to such a powerful poem ringing in my ears: “………Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you……” Nevertheless, we need to be conscious of others around us and make sure there is space for everyone to be heard, whilst not underplaying one’s own strengths.
I recently attended a lunchtime workshop presentation on Neuroleadership at Graduate School of Business at University of Cape Town. I was left with an outstanding quote: “there’s no space in your certainty for me to be heard”. How true this is if someone is confident, has zest, energy & confidence?…..whilst all these factors are positive, it can leave others feeling inadequate. I hear Marianne Williamson’s ‘A return to love’ and Nelson Mandela’s reference to such a powerful poem ringing in my ears: “………Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you……” Nevertheless, we need to be conscious of others around us and make sure there is space for everyone to be heard, whilst not underplaying one’s own strengths.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Retailers take note!............
Retailers take note; Truth discusses optimum customer centricity on Biz Commuity Retail site
http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/160/51498.html
http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/160/51498.html
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Finding Your Magic
Today I had the privilege of speaking at the Student Village Women's leadership conference to the top 200 women graduates in the Western Cape. It was such an honour. Thank you Tarren for co-ordinating the event & the opportunity to speak.
I was invited to speak on FINDING YOUR MAGIC and discussed My Personal Leadership Magic. In a nutshell, what better way to spend an hour than discussing personal growth and leadership with beautiful young women who reminded me of me 20 years ago (crikes,.....really 20 years ago! oh yes!).
I left the ladies with thoughts around:
- don't postpone living
- make sure when you brush your pearlies at night that you can honestly say that you have made the most of your 24 hours
- Get comfortable, being uncomfortable
- If it doesn't scare you, it's not worth doing!
- and much more !
Thank you ladies.........remember authenticity - you are on the way up: so be nice to people on the way up...you may need them on your way down!
I was invited to speak on FINDING YOUR MAGIC and discussed My Personal Leadership Magic. In a nutshell, what better way to spend an hour than discussing personal growth and leadership with beautiful young women who reminded me of me 20 years ago (crikes,.....really 20 years ago! oh yes!).
I left the ladies with thoughts around:
- don't postpone living
- make sure when you brush your pearlies at night that you can honestly say that you have made the most of your 24 hours
- Get comfortable, being uncomfortable
- If it doesn't scare you, it's not worth doing!
- and much more !
Thank you ladies.........remember authenticity - you are on the way up: so be nice to people on the way up...you may need them on your way down!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Beyond Inspiring - Linda Biehl's approach to South Africa after Amy's death
Many of you may know the story of Amy Biehl (see http://www.amybiehl.co.za/) and my story today is not to repeat Amy's story. Their official website does that perfectly.
Last weekend Kevin Chaplin, one of the world's most inspiring people,(CEO of The Amy Biehl Foundation) hosted the Amy Biehl Youth Awards. I left the event so engaged, motivated & determined to do more to support this remarkable cause.
Linda Biehl, made a decision that very few of us probably could have made, after Amy's tragic murder in South Africa, 17 years ago. She didn't seek revenge as most of us would have done (I cannot even imagine how I would react after such a huge personal loss), and quite simply generated her efforts back into South Africa to found the Amy Biehl Foundation.
Seeing how the Amy Biehl children from the Cape Flats townships performed with such energy, passion & zest for life touched everyone. Linda's determination & spirit of forgiveness has given life to these beautiful young people. Kevin & his team, work tirelessly to raise funds, enabling the programmes to touch the lives of 1500 children per week.
Back to the point of my story. We all deserve inspiration in our lives, and probably give it to others without even realising it.
Linda & Kevin shell out bucket loads of it - but not for personal glory; quite simply to better the lives of others. wow!
Last weekend Kevin Chaplin, one of the world's most inspiring people,(CEO of The Amy Biehl Foundation) hosted the Amy Biehl Youth Awards. I left the event so engaged, motivated & determined to do more to support this remarkable cause.
Linda Biehl, made a decision that very few of us probably could have made, after Amy's tragic murder in South Africa, 17 years ago. She didn't seek revenge as most of us would have done (I cannot even imagine how I would react after such a huge personal loss), and quite simply generated her efforts back into South Africa to found the Amy Biehl Foundation.
Seeing how the Amy Biehl children from the Cape Flats townships performed with such energy, passion & zest for life touched everyone. Linda's determination & spirit of forgiveness has given life to these beautiful young people. Kevin & his team, work tirelessly to raise funds, enabling the programmes to touch the lives of 1500 children per week.
Back to the point of my story. We all deserve inspiration in our lives, and probably give it to others without even realising it.
Linda & Kevin shell out bucket loads of it - but not for personal glory; quite simply to better the lives of others. wow!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
You can't bully Mount Everest
I am in awe of Lewis Pugh! I saw the recent documentary on Carte Blanche regarding Lewis Pugh's swim at Mount Everest. He has beaten all odds to make a point to the world about climate change. At >5000 metres, 2 degrees water temperature and 22 minutes, 51 seconds later, Lewis did more than make his point. His coach & friend, David Becker, refers to Lewis having a strong enough 'why' that you can put up with any 'how' ! We can all apply such simple & yet compelling rationale to our everyday lives. Many of us however may still need to find the 'why'. Lewis's summary was that he could bully the North Pole but you have to show peace & humility to Mount Everest: "You can't bully Mount Everest!"
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Too Little, too late !
“Too little, too late!”
My whole business is focused around customer so when I experience outstanding customer service I really do spread the word. As Jason Stewart MD of Have you Heard (an outstanding Word of Mouth Marketing agency) explains, that more people spread positive word of mouth stories (68%) versus only 8% who spread negative word of mouth stories. Even so, the damaging effect of negative word of mouth should not be ignored…at your peril!
Unfortunately, my little story today is a prime example for Jason to use at his many speaker engagements of poor service and how quickly word of mouth spreads that experience. Jason & I were both speaking at the Marketing Mix loyalty conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday, focused on Loyalty. Jason’s view is that the key differentiator of loyalty is people. They can make or break an experience which drives loyalty to that brand; most notably he talks about the responsibility lies with management. If you get rubbish service it is because of the organisation’s management. My little story is just that; a prime example of an OK product but destroyed by the people at the top.
I had a late flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg, the night before the conference, and I needed to call the booked guesthouse to a) confirm my late arrival (after 10pm) and b) get directions from the airport. So I did just that; I called the Oasis Luxury Guest house in Rivonia (Homestead rd) and it actually started right there & then. 2 out of the 3 numbers were either out of order or not answering and then eventually a brusque, unfriendly Grayham answered his cellphone. He is the owner of Oasis Guesthouse. I wont bore you with the details, but I simply needed directions from OR Tambo airport to his guest house, which in my book, isn’t an unusual ask for the travel industry (I was in the travel industry for 11 years). He was rude, unhelpful and insulting. Eventually, I had to leave the call as I was literally boarding the aircraft. His response: “well most people have the internet!” “I do sir, but right now I am walking through the boarding gate and thought it wasn’t a big ask to get directions for a lady arriving on her own, late at night into Johannesburg and I don’t know how to get to your luxury guest house; I thought maybe you could help?”
Hey Ho! I boarded my very pleasant BA flight to Johannesburg and forgot about Grayham. On landing, my phone beeped with 2 messages: 1 adoring message from my loved ones and 1 off Grayham: “Please call me, I can give you directions.” Too little, too late. I was already begrudgingly staying there as it was too late to change & the hotel had been paid for. I made my way there, was rudely welcomed at the gate intercom, and Grayham eventually made his way to meet me at the car: “So you got here then?” I had to do everything in my power to bite my lip to not respond: “Yes but no thanks to you!” The rest of the experience at Oasis Luxury guest house was fine…..not leaping easily into its claimed 5star rating but nothing worth noting negatively. On a positive note, their beds are beyond comfortable!
The bar was busy with Grayham’s buddies, who had by my reckoning heard the story from his side and welcomed me with a “just opened a bottle of wine love, would you like to join us?” Yeh right! I’ll politely decline tonight, if that’s OK by you. The next morning at breakfast, ‘Mrs Grayham’ gave me the “Sleep OK?” question with no eye contact (Jason – your absolute best illustration of dreadful service – beautifully demonstrated) .
All in all, the point of my little note isn’t to complain unnecessarily but to illustrate a live example of the amazing presentation from Have You Heard’s MD, Jason Stewart. Jason – feel free to use our friendly luxury guesthouse owner, Grayham, as a real example of how to lose loyalty and send women running to the hills to find safe, secure, hospitable places to stay in Johannesburg (like the Parkwood off Oxford rd which is made so fabulous by the amazing people from Nikki to the gate attendant).
I am not sure how up to speed Grayham is with social media, but let’s give it a try. My word of mouth story has reached probably about 15 people in real life in the past 24 hours (not because I am nasty; I am just a normal disappointed customer) and is now in cyberspace ……. how many will read this little tale?
My whole business is focused around customer so when I experience outstanding customer service I really do spread the word. As Jason Stewart MD of Have you Heard (an outstanding Word of Mouth Marketing agency) explains, that more people spread positive word of mouth stories (68%) versus only 8% who spread negative word of mouth stories. Even so, the damaging effect of negative word of mouth should not be ignored…at your peril!
Unfortunately, my little story today is a prime example for Jason to use at his many speaker engagements of poor service and how quickly word of mouth spreads that experience. Jason & I were both speaking at the Marketing Mix loyalty conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday, focused on Loyalty. Jason’s view is that the key differentiator of loyalty is people. They can make or break an experience which drives loyalty to that brand; most notably he talks about the responsibility lies with management. If you get rubbish service it is because of the organisation’s management. My little story is just that; a prime example of an OK product but destroyed by the people at the top.
I had a late flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg, the night before the conference, and I needed to call the booked guesthouse to a) confirm my late arrival (after 10pm) and b) get directions from the airport. So I did just that; I called the Oasis Luxury Guest house in Rivonia (Homestead rd) and it actually started right there & then. 2 out of the 3 numbers were either out of order or not answering and then eventually a brusque, unfriendly Grayham answered his cellphone. He is the owner of Oasis Guesthouse. I wont bore you with the details, but I simply needed directions from OR Tambo airport to his guest house, which in my book, isn’t an unusual ask for the travel industry (I was in the travel industry for 11 years). He was rude, unhelpful and insulting. Eventually, I had to leave the call as I was literally boarding the aircraft. His response: “well most people have the internet!” “I do sir, but right now I am walking through the boarding gate and thought it wasn’t a big ask to get directions for a lady arriving on her own, late at night into Johannesburg and I don’t know how to get to your luxury guest house; I thought maybe you could help?”
Hey Ho! I boarded my very pleasant BA flight to Johannesburg and forgot about Grayham. On landing, my phone beeped with 2 messages: 1 adoring message from my loved ones and 1 off Grayham: “Please call me, I can give you directions.” Too little, too late. I was already begrudgingly staying there as it was too late to change & the hotel had been paid for. I made my way there, was rudely welcomed at the gate intercom, and Grayham eventually made his way to meet me at the car: “So you got here then?” I had to do everything in my power to bite my lip to not respond: “Yes but no thanks to you!” The rest of the experience at Oasis Luxury guest house was fine…..not leaping easily into its claimed 5star rating but nothing worth noting negatively. On a positive note, their beds are beyond comfortable!
The bar was busy with Grayham’s buddies, who had by my reckoning heard the story from his side and welcomed me with a “just opened a bottle of wine love, would you like to join us?” Yeh right! I’ll politely decline tonight, if that’s OK by you. The next morning at breakfast, ‘Mrs Grayham’ gave me the “Sleep OK?” question with no eye contact (Jason – your absolute best illustration of dreadful service – beautifully demonstrated) .
All in all, the point of my little note isn’t to complain unnecessarily but to illustrate a live example of the amazing presentation from Have You Heard’s MD, Jason Stewart. Jason – feel free to use our friendly luxury guesthouse owner, Grayham, as a real example of how to lose loyalty and send women running to the hills to find safe, secure, hospitable places to stay in Johannesburg (like the Parkwood off Oxford rd which is made so fabulous by the amazing people from Nikki to the gate attendant).
I am not sure how up to speed Grayham is with social media, but let’s give it a try. My word of mouth story has reached probably about 15 people in real life in the past 24 hours (not because I am nasty; I am just a normal disappointed customer) and is now in cyberspace ……. how many will read this little tale?
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
You don't know what you don't know - let Truth show you how
Truth opened the Marketing Mix Loyalty Summit today in Johannesburg with my presentation on 'Maximising your customer data to drive profits'. Terry Murphy, Marketing Mix legend, summarised the session with compliments towards how Truth can show you "how to know what you don't know!" So many of Truth's clients comment on how they don't know what they don't know - without the insights of customer data to truly help them drive greater profits.........
Thursday, July 29, 2010
New blog announcement
Welcome to my new blog.
i will keep you up to date - with all the latest truth info
Upcoming Conference - truth speaks
Loyalty Summit – 3 August 2010
How to translate a strategy into actual business improvements that matter? How to enable the organisation to really listen to customers and act on what the customer hears? How to motivate your employees so that they add value to the customer experience? The loyalty analytics that matter.
Check the line up of speakers and topics, they represent a who’s who in loyalty marketing South Africa.
Targeting professional marketers, a one day conference at The Conference Park, Rivonia.
8h55-9h35
Customer Relations and Insights at Retail
· Generating Loyalty in a sector where customers are notoriously promiscuous
· Role of Club cards in generating loyalty
Natalie McCrae, 5one
9h35 – 9h45
Stretch break
9h45-10h25
Loyalty Clubs
· The big differentiators for the top clubs
· The benefit mix that customers really want
· Identifying profitable value adds
· Multi-channel consumers are more loyal than single channel consumers
Deon Olivier, Woodstock
10h25-10h55
Coffee and Networking
10h55-11h35
Digital Marketing & Engagement
· Trends in digital marketing
· Digital loyalty programmes
· Integrating websites, mobi sites, help desks etc..
· How to engage and gather analytics in the process
· Lower LSM customer engagement
· Social networking
· How to use digital incentives such as competitions, vouchers etc.
Mark Angus, Innoviate
11h35-12h05
Employee’s Engaging with the Customers
· In a service-driven environment, employees are often the most important part of your business to deliver on your brand promise
· Gone are the days when companies could rely on blind loyalty. Today employee are unashamedly ‘disloyal’, constantly scanning the job market for better offers.
· Understanding the elements of successful employee engagement and measuring it on a regular basis will allow companies to retain talented employees and build profitable businesses.
Beverley Buchanan,, Ipsos South Africa
12h05-13h05
Lunch
13h05-13h45
Differentiation Advantages through Customer Experience Analysis
· Examples of business successes based on long term sustainability
· Authentic experiences demand committed people
· The reality of customer experience measurements
· Zappos.com case study
Graeme Leach, Director, Raptup
13h45-14h25
Customer Experience Reality
· How your broken brand promises destroy customer relationships.
· How service will build loyalty and drive sales.
· Examples provided
Jason Stewart, Managing Director, HaveYouHeard
14h25-14h40
Coffee
14h40-15h25
Employee Loyalty and how it Links Directly to Customer Loyalty Grace Harding
How to translate a strategy into actual business improvements that matter? How to enable the organisation to really listen to customers and act on what the customer hears? How to motivate your employees so that they add value to the customer experience? The loyalty analytics that matter.
Check the line up of speakers and topics, they represent a who’s who in loyalty marketing South Africa.
Targeting professional marketers, a one day conference at The Conference Park, Rivonia.
8h15 – 8h55
Maximising your customer data to drive profit
· Profiling customers and determining the most actionable and valuable segments
· Driving maximum sales & profit from customer segmentation
· Predictive modelling
· Customer journey and its impacts across the entire organisation
Amanda Cromhout, MD, TRUTH
8h55-9h35
Customer Relations and Insights at Retail
· Generating Loyalty in a sector where customers are notoriously promiscuous
· Role of Club cards in generating loyalty
Natalie McCrae, 5one
9h35 – 9h45
Stretch break
9h45-10h25
Loyalty Clubs
· The big differentiators for the top clubs
· The benefit mix that customers really want
· Identifying profitable value adds
· Multi-channel consumers are more loyal than single channel consumers
Deon Olivier, Woodstock
10h25-10h55
Coffee and Networking
10h55-11h35
Digital Marketing & Engagement
· Trends in digital marketing
· Digital loyalty programmes
· Integrating websites, mobi sites, help desks etc..
· How to engage and gather analytics in the process
· Lower LSM customer engagement
· Social networking
· How to use digital incentives such as competitions, vouchers etc.
Mark Angus, Innoviate
11h35-12h05
Employee’s Engaging with the Customers
· In a service-driven environment, employees are often the most important part of your business to deliver on your brand promise
· Gone are the days when companies could rely on blind loyalty. Today employee are unashamedly ‘disloyal’, constantly scanning the job market for better offers.
· Understanding the elements of successful employee engagement and measuring it on a regular basis will allow companies to retain talented employees and build profitable businesses.
Beverley Buchanan,, Ipsos South Africa
12h05-13h05
Lunch
13h05-13h45
Differentiation Advantages through Customer Experience Analysis
· Examples of business successes based on long term sustainability
· Authentic experiences demand committed people
· The reality of customer experience measurements
· Zappos.com case study
Graeme Leach, Director, Raptup
13h45-14h25
Customer Experience Reality
· How your broken brand promises destroy customer relationships.
· How service will build loyalty and drive sales.
· Examples provided
Jason Stewart, Managing Director, HaveYouHeard
14h25-14h40
Coffee
14h40-15h25
Employee Loyalty and how it Links Directly to Customer Loyalty Grace Harding
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