At least this guy was making an effort!

My meeting had gone well, I was in a really positive frame of mind so I decided I would take the first step towards possibly ordering a new car for the start of 2012.

On the way back from my meeting I popped into a car showroom just to get a feel for the prices of the new cars, the second hand cars and of course what I would manage to get as a trade in for the Santa Fe that had served us well since the beginning of 2007 despite the high mileage.

I first spent some time looking at the “premium collection” parked outside, the collection of two and three year old cars all in great condition. Hmmm … not bad at all!

I then dared to venture into the showroom to look at the new models and I must admit feeling excited about the thought of being able to drive one of these beauties at the start of 2012. I was waiting for the approach from the salesman to start a possible conversation that could have resulted in a sale – a few of them were busy at their desks, a few walked past me with folders and a few were chatting to other possible customers.

I looked, I waited, I looked again and I must admit after a while that I was feeling a little deflated as car salesman after car salesman seemed to decide that I was an unworthy customer – did I look broke, did I look like a “tyre kicker”, did I look like another casual browser who was just going to waste their time? In any event I ended up leaving after about 20 minutes having spoken to no one.

Those who know me quite well will not be surprised that how I was feeling at that moment was shared on Twitter … “I must look like I am broke, the car salesmen didn’t come near me” I tweeted.

About 10 minutes later I received a call from a friend of mine who is in the motor trade who had spotted my tweet – he was initially concerned that this could have been his car showroom and that there was some issue with his customer service. I assured him that it wasn’t and that if my route back from my meeting passed his place I would have definitely have called in. Needless to say the conversation came around to me possibly being in the market for a new car..

I collected it beauty on the 5th January, it’s a beauty..

Who said twitter was a waste of time for business ..?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Are you Ready !!!!

I was 14, it was 1979 and I stood there in awe in a hot, sweaty and packed City Hall as Phil Lynott roared down at us with his fist shaking .. “Are You Ready?“.

Of course he was greeted by loud roars from the thousands of rockers. Again he roared “Are You Ready?” and he managed to increase the decibels even more from the devoted audience.

Once more he roared the same even louder and with the crowd now in a frenzy the band launched into an incredible version of the song “Are You Ready” and lifted the roof off the place!

I was mesmerised…to this day it must have been my best ever concert moment and it cemented my passion for music. Thank you Phil!

So, start of another year and to take a lesson from the Phil Lynott school of motivation … Are You Ready?

It’s a time for resolutions and of course we all have the very best of intentions so I just wanted to offer you a few of our Marketing & PR tips to help you on the way – if you’re as passionate as Phil about your business as he was about his music this will be valuable ..

1. Positive Intent - before I go into all of the practical stuff it is vital that you have this and that your let your team know that you want them to have the same. This should be the driving force behind every thing you do. You will be amazed the opportunities that come your way and will appear when you have this mindset.
2. Get in the game on-line by being found - this is the low lying fruit guys. These are the punters who are already looking for your products or services. Test it – try a few searches and see how you perform (for example PR firms in Ireland should hopefully bring a listing for Fuzion). If you are not found for your priority keyword searches you should optimise your website and maybe consider a pay-per-click advertising campaign on Google.
3. Online Communication - if you decide to communicate to all your customers, previous prospects and other contacts right now could you do it? If not consider adding an email newsletter service to your communications and let people know of changes to the business, new products, new services, awards and other news on a regular basis. This is easy to set up and it is easy to capture new contacts for your newsletter directly from your website.
4. Social Media - one of my buddies gave me some guidance recently gently advising that I was too concerned about online. I’m sorry, when I see an opportunity maybe I just point it out until I see it being grasped! Online gives you an opportunity to amplify your existing efforts – In truth very people in business today are using the popular platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter and even Facebook properly. There are a few who are thriving by using these very cleverly – thankfully we are one of these and to be honest we could always do even better. Social Media Consultancy is a thriving industry because there is a huge appetite to learn by those who have spotted the importance of this communication medium.
5. Good stories - one of our motto’s at Fuzion with our clients is Never waste a Good Story. If there is good news happening in your business, if there are interesting personalities, if there are changes that should be publicised and great products then get them out there with a strong PR Plan. Every business has good stories – don’t waste them. PR can be a very effective and economical way of getting your message out there.
6. The Mirror - have a good look in the mirror for your business. Does your branding, signage, website and other tangible visible elements properly reflect the quality of your business, products and services? Right now take a glance at your business card! It may be time to refresh your branding and put your best foot forward.
7. Advertising & Promotions - If you have pulled back on activity in this area then maybe it is a time to revisit this activity. There is terrific value to be had if you do this in a very planned way, securing great prices and also negotiating promotions and editorial coverage. The chances are your competitors have cut back on their activity – time to steal a march on them?
8. Marketing Plan - Map out all of your Marketing & PR activity including your budgets for the year and share this with your team. Try to ensure that there is a constant stream of activity so that your business is always very visible with your target audience.
9. Measure - Track the performance of your activities, giving each of them a proper chance to seed so that you can properly assess their effectiveness. Flex your plan where necessary.
10. Be Ready - Be ready to grab those new opportunities as they come along – they will!

Have a great year and we should leave the last word to Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Are you following your passion?

I started telling this story in a previous blog post “Breaking Bread Together” , but there was a separate story there which I felt warranted its own stage so here goes eventually for the one I intended writing in the first place..

Fuzion Friday had arrived again – on Fridays our team at Fuzion share a meal together at lunch time. This is something we all look forward to as it is a highlight of our week when we all let the hair down and shake off some of the stresses of the week.

The chat starts off at around 12, “where will we go for lunch today” and after much discussion (Mary normally getting her way!) a restaurant is chosen and while the intention is to get there before 1 to avoid places being too busy we normally find ourselves trekking out the office door at about 10 past 1 because someone is always finishing something!

On this occasion it was me that was delaying proceedings so eventually I told the bunch to go ahead to Cafe Bar Deli and I’d catch up in a few minutes. As always I underestimated the 2 minutes it would take to finish what I was doing and I could see the “where the hell are ya” phone calls coming through to my phone.

Eventually I finish what I am doing and I race down the stairs and make my way quickly towards the restaurant. Heading quickly towards Oliver Plunkett Street I start to hear a really beautiful sound coming towards me – at a street corner I am greeted by the sight of this very tall gentleman dressed in a tuxedo singing the most beautiful version of “The Town I Loved So Well“. Despite the rush I was in I just had to stop and listen to this gorgeous performance, which was a rare treat not to be missed.

A few people did stop to listen, while other busy shoppers shuffled by going about their business. I could feel my phone vibrating in my pocket but I ignored it as this moment was too previous to miss. Eventually I had to move on (I could start to imagine the earful I was going to get by the crew) but only after first shaking this man’s hand and thanking him for a beautiful moment in an otherwise crazy busy week.

I took a photograph of this guy and noticed the sign by his feet complete with phone number and web address – his name was Peter D Walls, www.peterdwalls.com and his number (086) 7728344.

Over lunch I could not get this guy out of my head - what is his story? He was clearly very talented and here he was singing on a street corner, which surely was something “beneath him”? At least this is what my immediate reaction would be.

Intrigued I decided to check out his website and learn a little bit more about this street singer. With the help of Mr. Google I found his website, I found a YouTube clip of a street performance and I listened to an interview that someone did with him. It turns out he does this frequently, he appears in Thomas Street, Limerick every Saturday and he performs in Dublin during the week also.

Is this beneath him, surely his talent deserves a much better stage, why is he doing this, why is he putting himself in the mix with other buskers, who to be fair would not lace his musical boots?

Looking desperately for an answer to this question I found a simple quote on his website -

“It’s never too late to follow your passion“

..does it really matter what you are doing and where you are doing it as long as you are following your passion?

Happy New Year!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

I had a Great 2012 because ..

Well – how did you do?

Did you achieve what you set out to achieve in 2011?

Did you make ambitious plans and fall short of them or did you make any plans at all? – If you did, well done!

I don’t know about you but making plans and actually achieving them is always challenging and at the start of the year I find myself at the start of that loop all over again making promises than often will never materialise!

Last year I wanted it to be a little bit different and I had my own creative and quite practical idea, which was inspired by a book I read called “The Art of Possibility” by Benjamin and Rosamund Zander (a really interesting motivational book by the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and his wife who is an executive coach).

This idea is rooted in the power of visualisation – the principle behind this is that if you visualise what you want to achieve then there is a much better chance of it actually happening.

Here goes ..

Take a pen and paper and simply write your diary entry in advance for your last working day of the year ..

Imagine just before you switch off the lights in the office, before you head out the door to do some last minute shopping and enjoy a well-earned rest, you quietly write your diary entry.

It might go like this..

23^rd December, 2012

Wow, that was some exciting and really fulfilling year!

It was a great year because I really achieved what I set out to both personally and professionally and even more besides because of those opportunities that cropped up that I wasn’t even expecting. At least I had my eyes open and when they occurred I spotted them and grabbed them.

I started the year with a few really clear goals including (go for it, be specific – list at least 5!)

I thought these goals were going to be really challenging, but I achieved these as I made a few important changes in my life that were necessary such as (be honest – what needs to happen for you to achieve those goals – your conditions for success).

It wasn’t all plain sailing and I had a few setbacks but I kept a clear focus on my goals, I kept a positive outlook and by digging deep and having a clear belief in myself and my abilities I managed to achieve them all in the end.

I’m glad I kept a positive outlook and kept my eyes open for those genuinely unique opportunities, which I know will only present themselves in this challenging economic climate – it made a huge difference to my business this year, which I wasn’t expecting.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,  2013 – Bring it On!

Your signature (make sure you do this)

Put this in an envelope, place it in your top drawer and have a peep at it on the first day of every month (set a reminder in your computer to do this) and see what happens.

We did this with our full team at the end of 2010 and I can tell you it worked out quite well, thank you very much!

We will do it again this time round – I’ll let you know how we got on in about 12 months’ time.

By the way I’ve just ordered a really nice new car – guess what was on my list last year!

…what are you waiting for?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Where are we going for lunch today?

Every Friday the team at Fuzion go to lunch together – we call it Fuzion Friday!

No matter what happens, no matter how busy we are we keep Friday precious and break bread together. Its a time when we chill out for a while, chat about the week, relax, crack a few jokes and simply bond over a bite of grub and yes, if we’re not too much under pressure we will share a bottle of vino.

We started this tradition a number of years back when it was just me, Dee and Ali in the team and somehow we never stopped and now the whole bunch of us go - that’s 9 of us when we are all together! Sometimes we might bring a client along and even the odd brave journalist has been known to join us. When things were very tight financially (when aren’t they!) the crew came to us and suggested that maybe we should stop this practice as it was probably costing us too much.

For us the ritual of sharing a meal together and de-stressing, just for a while every week is too precious and worth too much not to do.  I look forward to it so much – it’s a simple ritual that signifies we have pulled together as a team through another busy week. After all what is the point if we can’t do this?

I have worked in small companies and I have worked in large organisations and for me the most important thing is being happy – we spend so much of our time in work it is vital that we enjoy who we work with and that we enjoy a happy atmosphere together. For the most part my working life has been in good places with a good atmosphere but I have also experienced the total opposite. If that is you then “get out” – it will eat you up.

Now, don’t get me wrong – we do have our moments when we are under stress and everything isn’t Utopia (invoice day!) but to be honest they are more the exception.

I work with a great bunch, I will always protect the positive atmosphere because I just couldn’t bear the opposite – life is just too short to be unhappy at work.

I started this blog to share a particular story with you but realised half way through that the story of breaking bread together was worth a stage all of its own. I’ll tell you the other story next week!

Break bread with your team this week .. 

Greg Canty is a  parter of Fuzion

It pays to be nice!

This week I heard a really simple story by a guy who was participating in one of our training courses. He supplied corporate and domestic cleaning services and at the early stages of  building his business he was desperately trying to get some custom from the biggest hotel in his town. Despite all attempts he realised that he could not shift the incumbent supplier who the hotel were extremely loyal to so he eventually stopped trying.

Some time later he was asked to clean the carpets in this elderly woman’s house, which he did and at the end of a very long and tiring day he finished the job and packed away all of his cleaning gear. The old woman realised that there was another room upstairs that she had forgotten about and she asked him would he look after it.

Even though it was late and it would take an age to unpack and set up all of his cleaning gear again he decided he would go ahead, unload and clean the extra room. The woman thanked him and did acknowledge the extra work and inconvenience that was involved in cleaning the extra room.

Two weeks later he received a call from the hotel to come and clean some of their carpets.

Guess who was related to the elderly woman?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion PR

Can you see me from up there?

George Michael at the O2 in Dublin was the reason I found myself on the lastminute.com website last Monday – as usual I was lastminute.com when it came to looking for a nice place for us to stay so here I was browsing ..

There is a nice feature on the lastminute.com website whereby you can elect to stay in a “secret” hotel – for those who haven’t used this feature the website gives a general description of the hotel , it gives you a general location description and it gives you the star classification.

My criteria was simple enough, city centre location, handy enough for the O2 and either 4 or 5 star and of course I was hoping for a bargain – maybe a cracking last minute deal in the lap of luxury!

I found a “secret” hotel that seemed to be perfect – “a romantic luxury hotel in an idyllic setting perfect for a couple and just a few minutes from Trinity College, Stephens Green and city centre shopping“.

This gem was available for both of us for only €76 euros. I wondered where could it be and tried to match up the description with my knowledge of city centre hotels.

There were other secret 4 and 5 star hotels and these were €140 and €189 – could we be that lucky that we discovered the perfect romantic hotel in a perfect location at an incredible price? I doubted it but why not.

You have to confirm your booking and then your “secret” hotel is revealed..

The Burlington Hotel .. Hmm not exactly modern, idyllic and romantic and not exactly next to Stephens Green. However I reasoned that you get what you pay for, I should have relied on the price and not be taken in by the description.

A taxi ride later and we arrive at the O2 and produce our very expensive tickets, show them to the usher and wait to be guided to the section where our seats were located. Deirdre is a huge George Michael fan so as soon as the tickets went on sale we deliberately bought the more expensive seats (over €130 each! – I did take a deep breath ..) as she wanted to be as close to George as possible!

We climbed and we climbed and found ourselves two rows back from the very top of the arena waiting to see if the mobile drink seller was also selling binoculars! I honestly thought the seats were terrible but I kept my powder dry not wanting to spoil Dee’s night and also resigning ourselves to the fact that complaining would be quite pointless.

The guy sitting across from us must have been reading my mind and he kicked off with the usher – he deliberately bought the most expensive tickets as a present for his wife and demanded to know where in the auditorium were the cheap seats if these were the expensive ones! The very polite usher quickly found some supervisory person who arrived and tried their best to calm the man down.

Jokingly I was about to whisper to the guy that my tickets were bad value for €30 but again he read my mind, beat me to the punch and told me his were €25. No sooner had our mutual joke finished when a group of ladies who had just been shown to their seats in the row behind us started giving out – guess who had deliberately bought the expensive tickets?

The usher was called and the supervisor made another trip up the heights to try to calm down the situation.

In every stadium there are good seats and not so good seats but you should be able to rely on the price to differentiate these so there is no unnecessary frustration.

Can your customers rely on your prices? ..They need to

By the way, George was great even from 1/2 a mile away!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Hard habit to break?

I don’t like porridge, at least that’s what I always thought!

In truth I had never tasted it and at 46 what were the chances of me developing a taste for a new cereal? In particular one that was sticky, stodgy and a little messy to make.

I came down the stairs and as usual a really busy week at work meant that the shopping had been neglected and the cupboards were bare, except for this box of Flahavans porridge that had been given to each of the attendees at the Cork Chamber annual conference.

Ok, desperate times calls for desperate measures so let’s try it – how bad can it be? I crack open the carton and see 10 sachets inside with a handy little measuring cup. I quickly read the instructions, empty the sachet, two measures of milk, 2 minutes in the microwave and stir.

Hmmm ..not as bad as I was expecting but maybe it could have been a little sweeter?

Next morning and due to another hectic day at work and the small matter of final accounts being needed for the tax deadline the shopping had still been neglected – ok, let’s try the porridge again but this time lets add a small dash of maple syrup that I found at the back of the cupboard.

Hmmm..this was quite nice after all, it was easy to make and very warming on a cold and miserable morning.

Next morning – I’m looking forward to my porridge. A new habit was born!

It’s never too late to convert a customer but if you are doing it with samples don’t just give them a taste, give them enough so they can form a new habit.

Flahavans – well done to you!

I’m sure at some point that someone internally put their neck on the line and insisted that full boxes of product be given to participants at conferences instead of single sachets because they understood that’s what is needed to change habits.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Great Products - Poor Service?

I found myself in the queue of Butlers Chocolate Coffee Shop for about the fifth time in the week for our ritual morning treat and we just had to leave and search the streets of Cork for another outlet that might serve coffee as good (Cork Coffee Roasters on Bridge Street is a little too far away).

Unfortunately we didn’t find a better cup of coffee anywhere so I just have to try to solve my dilemma by blogging about it in the hope that they might notice.

Butlers Chocolate Coffee Shops do great coffee but at times the customer service is just appalling (my social media contacts will have seen a zillion posts about this from me). Some of the staff are very friendly and some are really quite the opposite. I find this incredible – I go in there at least three or four times a week, I buy a few coffees each time and some of the regular staff would neither smile or make eye contact.

There is also a very definite policy of preparing the coffee for the customer and leaving it on the counter and then “shouting” out the order until the customer hears and collects. You could be in there on a quiet day, sitting having a chat while waiting for your coffee , just feet from the counter and the staff will still “shout” your order instead of popping it over to you – I must admit it drives me nuts!

This must be how the staff are trained and I feel it also probably creates a culture whereby a “no smile” scenario is acceptable as well. I can see the logic around staff overhead but this policy needs to be applied with some intelligence and “cop on”.

Hilariously they recently introduced a new electronic loyalty card system called a “happiness” card and for the few weeks around it’s introduction all the staff had t-shirts with “happiness” written boldly across them. With the card you earn your usual one in ten coffees free but you also earn loyalty points – all designed to have you coming back. Now there’s a good idea!

This week I witnessed the very worst customer service incident, which motivated me to eventually write – A woman with a young kid and a new born baby around her neck in a little sling ordered a low fat latte. She seemed under pressure as she sat down while waiting for her coffee – the “shout” duly followed: “low fat latte” to be followed by an even louder and more impatient “low fat latte”.

The poor lady who was sitting down and a little under pressure with her toddler and baby responded “I’ll get it when I am ready“. At this stage practically every customer in the coffee shop had heard the awful interaction and were trying to figure out why none of the three staff on duty could make an exception and walk the few feet over to the woman with her coffee.

I was chatting with a buddy of mine and I was about to collect the coffee from the counter and bring it over to the woman only to be beaten to the punch by another customer.

Incredible!

The product is great so we keep going back but at some point a new coffee shop will open that will know the value of smiling and the even greater value of bringing coffee down to a customer in extreme or not so extreme situations .. I look forward to it.

If you have a great product don’t let it create an opportunity for poor service to creep in.

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

Win Win or is it all about price?

I remember when I started my first accountancy industry job in Deasy & Co. one of the early tasks I had was the job of selecting a supplier for all of our stationery requirements.

In those days we went through huge amounts of paper and our bill would have been quite large.

I approached the task diligently as the good accountant that I was – meeting each of the prospective suppliers and impassionately processing their quotes. The best quote won and next time round I did exactly the same thing all over again and put our business out for tender. It didn’t really matter who the supplier was – as long as I achieved the best price and the maximum savings for the company – wasn’t I brilliant?

24 years later and I find ourselves putting quotes together the whole time to hopefully win business and on the other side of the coin we deal with many suppliers.

A few things have I have learnt about pricing since those early days:

• The clients who hammer us on price because that’s just what they do, I have very little interest in doing business with them again
• If every piece of work a prospective client has is put out to auction I find myself caring less about this business (unless it is a tender situation where this is what you have to do)
• I deal with suppliers that I like dealing with as long as their prices are fair – I won’t break them up every time
• Trust and respect and a genuine interest in each others business is really important
• The word Loyalty is really important -not blind loyalty
• You have to leave a Win Win in every single deal that you do (James Caan the successful businessman from Dragons Den talks about learning this valuable lesson from his Dad at an early stage in his career in his excellent book)

For us building a successful business is all about providing excellent services (we don’t always get it right but we will try our best) to our clients in a partnership capacity – they outline their objectives and we do our best to achieve these together.

In the course of our business we use service and product providers that we trust and like doing business with, that ultimately will help us do our job. There is one exception where one of our suppliers just doesn’t care about our business and we are busy looking for a better solution.

The price should be fair and leave a Win Win for everyone.

Do you pay a heavy price when it’s all about price?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion

p.s. apologies to those suppliers years ago – I guess we were probably the loser ?