Referrals Unlimited Network

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Wow, I’m so excited and thrilled that I was asked to participate in Donna Cutting’s blog tour to showcase her new book “The Celebrity Experience!”  I’m going to be writing a book review on this book as well, so please be sure to check back for that as well.  Let me begin this by saying, this is one of the most well-written books on customer service that I have experienced!  This should be a “must-read” for every entrepreneur, no matter what stage your business is in and I highly recommend that you follow the links at the bottom of this post and get your very own copy!  I’ll keep the rest for the book review - which will be tough because it’s hard for me to keep a secret when I find good information to share!  It is my pleasure to now give the rest of this space to Donna Cutting, who is guest blogging for me today!

In 1987 I was part of the first full-fledged acting troupe for the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. We descended on the town of Lititz, PA in June for two months of rehearsals before the Faire began. Thirty or forty actors were housed in what used to be a Lutheran Church on the corner of 501 and West Orange Street. There, for two months, we lived, laughed, ate, slept, rehearsed and took lessons in stage combat, Elizabethan culture, history and dialect, and improvisation.

Twenty years later as I prepared to write The Celebrity Experience: Insider Secrets to Delivering Red-Carpet Customer Service, an improvisational game we used to play in our rehearsal hall (the old church sanctuary) called “Yes And.” In this game, two actors would be in a circle and one would start a scene. He’d say something like “Ah, my long lost brother, I have looked so long and hard to find you.” The second actor would say “Yes and . . ,” then add to the scene. For instance, “Yes and I have been abroad and seen the most fascinating sights.” The first actor would respond with “Yes and . . . ” – you get the picture.

The idea was to teach us to ADD to a scene, not “negate” it or “neg” the other actor (as we liked to say.) If the second actor had replied, “I’m not your long lost brother,” the scene would go nowhere.  So it is with customer service.

When I asked myself, “How can we treat our every day customers like celebrities” the answer came – by saying YES more often. You see, the difference between you, me and Julia Roberts is that when Julia Roberts requests something the answer is always yes! No matter how unusual the request, everyone around her works to figure out how to make it happen. You might say they OWN her request.

So often the rest of us are used to hearing “No” from service professionals. How many times have we longed to hear “Yes, and I can help you with that problem,” only to hear instead, “Sorry, can’t help you” or “No, the policy is.” You call the mortgage company with a problem and they tell you to call the insurance company, who tells you to call the mortgage company, etc. The scene goes nowhere. You might say we constantly get “negged” when all we want is for someone to own the problem.

If you want to have a reputation for better customer service (and get more referrals in the process) consider using this old improvisational technique. The next time a customer comes to you with a problem, think “Yes and . . .,” then find a way to help them.

For instance:

• A woman found that her grocery store was out of two items needed for a special meal she was preparing that night. A clerk got in his own car and drove to another store (in the same chain), picked up the two items and had them for the customer before she had checked out. She continues to tell everyone she knows about the outstanding service she received.
•  The hospice nurse who knew her patient was upset he wouldn’t see his horse again before he died, and found a way to bring the horse to his hospital window so he could say goodbye. The family tells the story to this day.
• A restaurant owner who started to turn away two customers when they arrived five minutes after closing. Instead, he invited them in and brought out everything that was still available in the kitchen. They had a grand time and have introduced no less than 30 people to that restaurant.
  These people are all masters of “Yes, and.” As a result, they’ve got loyal customers who are buzzing about their business or service.

The question is, how creative can you be when a customer comes to you with a dilemma? When you answer with a “Yes, and” you’ll find yourself with more buzz, more referrals, and more business.

Donna Cutting is the author of The Celebrity Experience: Insider Secrets to Delivering Red-Carpet Customer Service and a frequent keynote speaker on the topics of employee engagement and customer service.

This guest blog post was part of the beginning of a virtual blog tour for Donna’s book. You can read more about her book by visiting these blogs:

Teresa Morrow http://www.keybusinesspartners.com/2008/09/17/giving-your-customers-the-celebrity-experience/

Dr. Sally Witt www.drsallywitt.com

And tomorrow the virtual book blog tour continues at these blogs:

Beverly Mahone http://www.talk2bev.blogspot.com
Terry Booth http://nashvillerealestateblogger.com/
Denise O’Berry http://www.allbusiness.com/operations/3357-1.html

Follow this link to buy the book: Purchase Donna Cutting’s book

Tonight I was spending some time on FaceBook - looking at the profiles of those that have either added me as a friend or who had accepted my friend request.  All of a sudden, this post became crystal clear to me to come and talk to you about being respectful of your network.

As you know, I am an Open Networker and on LinkedIn I DO accept almost every single person who requests to connect with me.  I give them a chance, to see what they are all about, if we can resonate with one another, and if we cannot do that, then I can disconnect from them.

I do almost the same thing on FaceBook.  Tonight I spent more time than usual reviewing the profiles because time  had slipped away from me and there were quite a few people that added me as a friend and I had not had the chance to visit their profile and thank them.  Much to my amazement, I spent a good deal of time “unfriending” quite a few people.  You see, their profile was either very unprofessional in the words or in the photo they provided.  I also found quite a few young kids (I’m talking teenagers) who were interested only in the vampire and the blood games.  I quickly unfriended those connections.

Why would I do that?  You see, I’m in the business of building relationships.  In order to build a relationship, both parties must respect one another and the work they are doing.  It would be very unfair of me to expose the contacts in my network to the people that were on FaceBook, LinkedIn or even on Twitter, just to have fun and play games, look for a love connection or simply waste time.

When someone reviews my profile, I would appreciate it if they take the time to see who  has been posting on my wall, the type of messages that are posted and at least glance at who I am connected with. 

On Twitter it is a little more difficult to be choosy, but it’s not impossible.  I’m going through my connections on a regular basis. I’ve decided that if you use an avatar instead of your photo and you are not saying anything that is professional or in the way of sharing business tips and ideas, I’m going to “unfriend” you, “unfollow you” or “disconnect” from you.  My time is valuable, as is yours, and we need to spend time with folks who are here to do business and to help one another grow.

So as I am pruning my network, tell me about yours?  How do you decide who to “friend,” “follow,” or connect with?  How often do you review those connections? 

Are you keeping in touch with those contacts, gradually moving them from the position of contact to connections?  This is very important in developing relationships.  Start to move the contacts deeper into the relationship by asking qualified questions.  One of the major questions I have just started using is “please tell me about one of the most important projects you are working on currently.”  When they respond to my question, I can learn a lot from their answer - not only about the project(s) they are working on, but what type of business people they are and perhaps someone in my network, if not me, myself, may be able to make a referral or suggest a resource that would help them complete that project and add to their revenue stream.

As I close this post, I ask you to tell me about your project - what are you working on right now?  I want to help you so please do tell me.

Your comments are very welcome - please do answer in the comments below - I have asked quite a few questions in this post and I’d love to see this discussion continue.

If you are having trouble developing your contacts into connections and would like to have some coaching sessions to help you on your way, please do let me know.  I work with groups and/or individuals and can help guide you to improving the status of your network and help you generate income from those valuable connections and relationships.

How about it - are you being respectful of your network?

Good morning everyone!  Things have been a little quiet around here lately.  What have you all been up to?  Tell us about your latest networking event that you attended - online or offline - meet any new interesting people? 

Netweaving is really a lot of fun and it is the latest, best way to utilize your network.  You can position yourself as a Resource, a go-to person, if you will, one that has a massive contact list and knows just the right people for the right situation and is willing to share that information with others.  You could also position yourself as a Connector, one who helps others by introducing them to key people that may be needed to help develop their business to the next level, or may simply have a need for their services or products.  Either way, by helping someone else, focusing on others, your networking efforts are laser-sharpened and people will respond.  By doing these activities without the thought of what’s in it for me (WIIFM) and thinking of others instead, your payback will be bountiful somewhere in the near or possibly distant future.  You may never be able to attribute a growth in your business from one particular person or event, but you WILL benefit by paying it forward.  I’d love to see you all concentrate on doing that, see what the results are - I know you will be absolutely amazed!  Givers do gain - sometimes the gain is a whole lot more than financial wealth. 

A great example of netweaving is exactly what we are doing in our Skype Room network. When someone is having a problem with their blog, their Squidoo lens, their website, and they need advice on how to fix or solve their problem, they turn to one of us.  We are here to help one another!  Do we expect to be financially paid for our help - no, for the most part, we don’t.  We simply help one another and by helping one another, we all grow.  There are exceptions to this when two people contract with each other to work together and that’s perfectly okay - there’s nothing saying that services and/or products cannot be paid for - we are running businesses!  But the paying it forward opportunity excels right here, in this network.   I hope you are all aware of the rich contacts you have made  here and will continue to help one another - together we will all grow and be wildly successful! 

If anyone is interested in joining our Skype Room Connections, please feel free to visit http://www.runlancaster.com/skype-room/networking   You do need to have Skype installed on  your computer (it’s a free service, you are able to talk computer to computer anywhere in the world, free!) and please be sure to develop your profile on Skype!  As a community, there is a lot of great information that is shared with others and we would love to have you participate too!  We also have a community blog, one where we can each contribute on a subject that is helpful to others - visit http://www.passionprojectblog.com and meet some of the awesome contributors!  We also welcome your comments and your help in generating conversations!

So now tell me - who have you connected lately?  Have you helped someone grow their business by connecting them with someone in your network or have you helped them solve some sort of problem with their business?  If you are looking for some help for yourself or your business, the easiest way to ask is to start with “who do YOU know WHO . . .” and netweaving begins!  Keep it moving forward and help someone else - share your knowledge, time or talents!

I invite you to join in the conversation here, post your comments and let us get to know more about you!  And if you need some help, I’m always available - contact me by Skype (Deckert1116) or email or via the blog or my website - http://www.runlancaster.com

I’m looking forward to learning more about you and your business!  Make it an awesome day - help someone - you’ll be glad you did!

What makes you and your business different from your competitors’ business?  Tell me why you are unique and why you should be chosen over all your competitors to do business with!

As members of my weekly RUN group will tell you, this is a question I am constantly asking them as we give our referral requests during our meeting.  Be sure you are as specific as possible, telling me what you do that solves your client’s pain or how you helped solve a problem.

Members of my RUN group will be asked to come and post here as well.  Please check back to read the comments - I’m sure you will enjoy meeting everyone and be able to make some new referral buddies!

So tell me, why should I do business with YOU?

Bill Cates, from The Referral Minute, writes some great email posts.  Today’s included a great quote that I felt compelled to share with all of you . . .

 Quote of the Week
“Referrals come through who you are, not what you sell.”

Think about that - does that motivate you to change the way you think or the way you promote yourself?  I loved that quote and it really hit home with me - building relationships, going for the referral - it all begins with the person - not the business!  If you would like to read more from Bill Cates, you can find him at http://www.referralcoach.com   Bill talks quite a bit about niche marketing - and he has found his own niche, working with CPAs.  If you know of a CPA that is struggling, I highly recommend sending them to Bill!

Tell me what motivates you?  Do you have a favorite quote that “gets you going” when you are stuck? 

By the way - I love your comments so I appreciate your response!