Writing out to people that you don’t really know, or don’t know well, can seem daunting at times.
What on earth can you write about? What on earth is new to say?
Getting past the need to say something new (interesting, exciting, passionate, brilliant, witty, funny, life-changing, business-revolutionising) is the key to getting something written.
It’s often enough just to get the thing set down in an everyday, conversational kind of way, not least so you can then also get the thing sent – because it is often the sending that really matters, and that makes the difference over time.
People get used to the fact that you’re writing, that you’re there, and that you keep on showing up, committed, and reminding, even when there’s nothing that new (or exciting, or brilliant) to say.
It’s a tall order to try and shift a way of thinking, a way of working, a way of doing in one short email.
It’s a tall order to try and persuade a client, to clinch a sale, to generate new business.
It’s a tall order to try and sound brilliant, with each and every message.
It makes more sense to aim for other things instead. To prompt a phone call, raise a smile.
Just to remind someone of your presence, and build a relationship, however virtual, over time.
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If you’d like to develop simple and effective ways to communicate with your customers and clients over time, please do get in touch.
Even if you don’t know what you’d have to say. Particularly if you don’t know what to say

No firm gets it right every time – but the stars are the ones who shine when they have to put something right.

You have put in place a complaints policy. You’ve communicated it across the organisation – and yet it doesn’t quite gel. It might be things said on Twitter. It might a nagging thought.

Things you talk about from time to time. Yet don’t seem to be able to get to the bottom of – or feel are really sorted out.

Our experience shows that it’s possible to turn people who make a complaint — into people who advocate your business ‘cause you’ve been a star to them. Two areas make all the difference:

• One is the people. Your people and how much elbow room they have to use their own initiative to settle problems quickly.
• The other is the technology. Technology which supports your people to handle complaints effortlessly.

We help businesses make that turn around, so that when you don’t quite get it right you can grab the opportunity to shine. Interested in how we do that? Then please do get in touch.

After the long weekend, you are busy.

The extra days off were welcome, but now the week is short and you’re playing catch up, as fast as you can.

Another email is a distraction, an interrupt, something else for you to think about, take on board, add to your list of things.

Who is this from again? you wonder.

You stare at the email, tired.

Scan for the name, the colours, the logo, the tone.

And as you read, the first impression is formed, once again.

Over and over and over, we are creating first impressions.

The first one is only the start.

Even the shortest of email messages creates a new first impression and needs to be crafted with thought, and with care, and with due consideration to the shortness of your week and the length of your list to stand any hope of sneaking quietly, thoughtfully, under your well developed radar.

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Our aim is to create the right impression, each time we write, whether to you, or for you. (Crafting these short and simple first impression messages is one of the things we do.)

It’s part of our work to help businesses improve that vital first impression – not just for the first time but over and over, again and again and again.

If doing something about this is on your own to do list, please do get in touch.

You can have carte blanche this time, she said, and I could feel something leap in response.

Creativity, innovation, mischief.

It was instant: oh yes, I can work with that, I thought.

I can play with that. I can do something with that, the carte blanche, I thought.

For while there is much to be said for momentum and consistency, for making some of the processes that you work on more familiar and routine, less taxing of your energy and time, there’s a balance to be found, to be woven, to be danced between the pattern, the mould, the consistent repetition and the risks you need to take, some times, just letting go and seeing what unfolds.

Where your people will take you when left on their own.

Where your thoughts will take you when left on their own, with nothing more than the permission slip in front of them. The freedom of the carte blanche.

If you could have carte blanche today, where would you let yourself go?

We know. There is so much to be done, and never enough time to do it.

There are things you want to write, and never the right words to start it. There is a story that wants to be told: about what you do, and how you do it, about the big and brilliant difference that you’re making, and never the time and the words to be telling it.

Enter, stage left, the characters you’re missing.

The people who know you best.

Your customers. Your clients. The people who buy from you and work with you.

Why? Because they already have the words for what you do, and how you do it. They already have the feeling of what happened, when, and how.

It might not be the version that you like, or tell, or approve of.

But rest assured: they already have the story.

And if you let them, they can tell it for you. That might be in a brochure, a blog page or a video – and we can help you work with all of them – but to be honest the medium doesn’t matter as much as the shift you need to make (that we can help you make) to stop trying to tell the story yourself, and let others tell it for you.

To stop trying to control the story and let it flow instead: the good and the not so good bits, the warts and all grit that makes the story: true.

It’s storytelling that connects and resonates because it’s honest, human, true.

If you’re interested in exploring ways to let your customers start telling tales that tell… do get in touch.

You know where we are.

PS Here’s how we gather your brilliant customer testimonials.

Ouch.

I reckon this post from Lise on mirrors, drills, handymen and false economies hit home for more than a few of us.

In business, I regularly come across people who, rather than buy a service from someone who has the tools and expertise to get the job done swiftly, chose to spend their own and their teams time learning how to do something from scratch…to save £10.

It’s a reminder that looking in the mirror isn’t just about reflection. (Nor is it just the entrancing start to a fairy tale.)

No, it’s about using that reflection and recognition to move to a place of choice: making the decisions that will serve you, your business, your time, your energy, your bank balance – quicker, faster, more easily.

If you want a hand with some of the choices that you (secretly) know might be costing you time and money; if you want to get into the habit of getting to choice: quicker…

Do get in touch.

The leap day carries so much meaning and significance. The gift of the extra day, and how that shifts our perspective on time.

The invitation, running through our minds, to take that leap we’ve been dreaming of, waiting for, putting off for what seems like forever.

It’s also the day when, at least in UK traditions, the tables are turned on who gets to ask the question. To put the proposal. Yes, that refers to marriage, of course, and no, that’s not what we’re proposing!

But perhaps it is a chance to turn the question-asking upside down, at least for one day.

People, like you who run a business or lead a team are those who are asked. The person to whom others turn with questions, asking for ideas, a steer, for funding, for certainty, for an answer.

Do that for long enough and you can get out of the habit of asking.

Do that for long enough and it can be hard to admit there are still things you don’t know, and need to ask about.

This leap day provides a simple chance to turn that around.

If there’s something you’ve been wishing for ages you could ask about, however small, however daft it might sound, however much you think you should already know the answer… ask us.

It’s the perfect day to pop the question

Lise was writing the other day about customer service.

Gathering customer details, attention to detail, repetition of process… it’s the backbone of a successful business.

But.

Yes, there’s a but

But: maybe not something (if you’re honest) you do automatically, always, repeatedly.
Chances are it’s not the principle that’s missing: you get why it matters.
It’s the how to build it in that can be hard.

How to make it automatic, part of the nuts and bolts of what you do, woven inextricably into the heart and craft of your business.

If you’d like a hand making it less hard, more automatic, more simply woven, inextricably: let us know. We’d be glad to lend a hand.

We’ve been doing some building work.
For starters, we’ve been building this new website.

(We left the doors open while the work was going on: did you like watching the construction?)

While the site was being built, while that work was being done, we were building other things too.

We’ve been building up a team.
We’ve been building capacity.
We’ve been building understanding, practice, shared ways of working.

We’ve been building the ability to work together: with humour, patience, trust, confidence, openness, kindness, attention.

We’ve been building an approach that allows for working, doing, making and learning even while the building work is going on. Particularly when the building work is going on (since, of course, the building work is always going on).

We’ve been building a way of working that we think is kind of brilliant – and that we’re itching to pass on.

When you’re ready to start building,
We’re here. We can’t wait to talk to you.

It’s not so easy to define presence, but you know it when you see it.
Or is it simply that you feel the difference: that indefinable something that makes you turn your head, stop and stare, pay attention. Breathe it in.
Even in the bare bones outline we read the signs.
Who you are, how you stand, what you do, and how you go about it: indisputably present.

We help you create presence for your business.