Notes from a few of the Peer to Peer Workshops

Transcription

1 Notes from a few of the Peer to Peer Workshops What Turns Your Customer On? moderated by Bonnie Enwright Events: Customer get togethers meet and greet, Donate services, Charities/giving back, winter parties, golf Customer Service: Friendly (Disney standards), dress code Customer Relations: Friendly, chat, go the extra mile, spend extra time, answer questions Facilities: Yard maintenance, cleanliness (especially washrooms), flowers, landscaping, Club House, Pool What Turns your Customers On? moderated by Andy Blenkarn Engagement Ice cream & Coffee Bar (high end) Corn Roast Family fun day Rendezvous (fly pizza in) Valet cars Survey clients Focus group / advisory board Packaging, payments, advance pay Personalized regular communication (ask customers preference for contacting) Gifts, cards, boat show tickets Seminars, info sessions Charity work Hospitality Engaging your staff moderated by Ryan Stovold Empowering employees, values, vision and customer experience are boss, give the staff the ability to make the decisions. Communication, daily, weekly, or monthly meetings, debriefs after winterizing season, after conferences, tool box talk, saying Hi each morning, being fully engaged and interested in people s lives.

2 Appreciation, thank you, I am proud of you, staff days or employee appreciation days, treat days, pot lucks, BBQ s breakfast, pizza days. Cash Incentives, profit sharing, sharing company financials. Testing employee driven ideas and acknowledging them. Training Incentives to increase sales moderated by Scott MacCrimmon CRM. What system are you using to acquire and KEEP customers? Get to know the customer BEFORE trying to sell ANYTHING. People deal with people they like. Start with FORM system (Borrowed from Sam Danzler Seminar at Cobalt 9/2013). FORM... Family, Occupation, Recreation, Motivation. Do not proceed with selling until you've answered these questions. Once you're dealing with a repeat customer, how do you stay connected, top of mind? Stay focused on what interests them BEYOND the Boat discussion. Tear out articles from reading material and MAIL to them; don't e mail or scan if you can mail (shows more effort). Find NEW material to start discussions... if not, you're wasting their time. Find out what value added you can offer... and if possible, do them favours for free. Encourage customers to call you for advice, especially if it's product you don't sell. Become their "Boat Expert". The proof lies in your database... recognize customers that you've been dealing with for decades / generations. Take time to get on the phone (or chat in the yard) with long term clients and ask them why they choose to deal with you. Vilfredo (Pareto's Law) states that roughly 80 % of your business comes from 20 % of your clients Take some time to drill down into a printed database list of your clients. What few names continue to reward your business year over year? What are you doing to reward those special people? They are most likely the customers driving a disproportionate amount of referrals to your business as well Do you have a formal process that recognizes referrals? Something as simple as buying gift certificates (from another of your clients) and sending in a hand written card.

3 Conversely... drill deep for those 20 % of clients giving you constant grief (and complaints). You know who they are without even looking. FIRE THEM. They are likely your Anti Referral machine telling anyone who will listen ' how expensive you are" or "how they were improperly treated". Decide early on where you want to sit in the selling proposition 1) Relationship selling 2) Are you a low price position? 3) High end, superior service provider (This customer values his time the most)! Start with strategic thinking... Answer this: What one particular attribute sets you apart from your competition? You better have one! And don't use "My special relationship with my clients". That is merely a by product of what you must be doing right to encourage repeat business (or you're a captive monopoly). Stop delivering what that customer wants / expects and those "Special relationships" head for the exits! If you have that one attribute... try articulating it to your employees and customer base. You can do it... we can help (actually you can't, that's why we can help). Save Money Live Better Just do it Let your fingers do the walking Our customers have 4 currencies in their lives not just one. A currency is anything of value to us that we don t have enough of. The obvious currency is money, but there are four things that we don t have enough of 1. Money, 2. Time, 3. Feeling safe (physically and emotionally safe) and, 4. Feeling special. Do you know who does it better than you, anywhere in the world? Learn from the best do it even better and become the best.

4 Regulatory & Compliance Issues moderated by Phil LeBeouf & Rob Davidson 1. WSIB has announced a change in their coverage for business owners. Previously, business owners could opt out of WSIB coverage if they had a private plan. This has changed and owners are now required to be covered under the WSIB plan. 2. It was also reported that the MOL (Ministry of Labour) is on a blitz that is targeting Forklifts and lifting devices 3. A question was asked about forklift and overhead crane operator certifications Phil answered that typical forklift certifications last 3 years and noted strongly that it is not a license. Employees are to also complete a practical assessment every 18 months that is to be documented and placed in the employees file in case of an inspection. Furthermore, a new employee that may have had a certification at their previous place of employment does not mean that they are certified to operate equipment at your facility. They must receive practical training by a competent person in the specific equipment to be operated. 4. The use of mast steppers by customers was raised. If the mast stepper is to be operated by an employee, that employee must have their certification to do on that mast stepper. If a customer uses the mast stepper and there is an incident, the marina could be held liable. Marine operators that post signs or have customers sign waivers will not protect them in case of an incident. Waivers do not override negligence. 5. Hook cranes over 8 tons (?) require the operator to have a Hoisting Engineers Certificate which is a 2 3 years apprenticeship program. Marina operators with this type of equipment need to review the wording in the MOL if they have this type of equipment at their facility. Travel lifts do not fall under this category. 6. Boat houses and covered slips where boats are lifted and stored need to be qualified as they are part of the lift mechanism. It is recommended that marina with such buildings have an architect or engineer qualify these buildings to ensure they are structurally sound. 7. Marina employees engaged in shrink wrapping need to have fall protection when working above 10. Falls are the #1 WSIB claim. 8. Scaffolding needs to be rated and identified. 9. Caution needs to be taken by marina operator in regards to outside contractors and WSIB Clearance certificates. Make sure they have them and present a copy to the marina operator. Some marina operators are covering certain outside contractors under their WSIB to protect themselves. 10. Reference to the MOL 851 for more information about safe practices at marinas

5 OHSA and Regulations: Phil mentioned some items to keep on the radar in regards to lifting devices and specifically travel lifts and mobile cranes. He explained the distinction between devices which fall under the OHSA and devices which fall under the Hoisting Engineers Act. We talked about mobile hoists and the fact that these devices fall into a grey area currently. Some inspectors interpret them falling under Regulation 851 while there has been at least one interpretation of them falling under the HEA. If it ever came to an overall interpretation of mobile hoists falling under the HEA, this would really impact marinas across the Province. Most current mobile hoist operators would not be competent under the law at this juncture. This item is definitely one to monitor if you are a marina owner! 11. We also discussed some current changes that are happening at WSIB and how this could impact marinas. In the past, employers with no employees could opt out of WSIB coverage. This is changing. My understanding is that one man operations will need to register and pay premiums for themselves! Also WSIB is really cracking down on subcontractors, Certificates of Clearance. Requirements, etc. Obviously part of the rational here is to curtail the cash for service economy! 12. Lastly, we discussed the importance of young worker training at Marinas and how the MOL will be specifically targeting this issue again next summer! Marinas need to ensure that all training is documented and filed.