16 Oct 09 Gaining and Keeping Your Customers Trust – Part 2
Customer trust is built on job performance – yours to be exact. Are you a competent meeting planner? Do you deliver on promises? Are travel arrangements and accommodations precisely what you have led the client to believe they would be?
Your track record is your best asset. Satisfied customers are quick to speak your praises to their peers, but unhappy clients are even faster to cry about their disappointment on a sympathetic shoulder.
If you do not know the answer to a client’s question, find it or find someone who does. Clients are more patient and trusting when they sense your determination to give them the information they need.
It’s been said before but bears repeating, honesty is the best policy. If something goes wrong and you can’t deliver on services, the client needs to hear it from your own mouth and as quickly as possible. Do your best to resolve the situation or come up with a satisfactory plan B and don’t be afraid to enlist the client’s help to brainstorm over the situation. Don’t expect them to come up with a solution, however, a direct approach may make their plans more flexible in the case of disaster.
Trust takes time and energy to build and it’s well worth it. Inspire loyalty and your efforts will be rewarded.
Tags: Customer Trust, Customers Trust, Disappointment, Disaster, Honesty Is The Best Policy, Job, Loyalty, Meeting Planner, Peers, Plan B, Praises, Promises, Satisfied Customers, Travel Accommodations, Travel Arrangements, Unhappy Clients
14 Sep 09 “No-Show!”
No meeting planner likes to hear those words, especially when it comes to a speaker. It means that there is a disaster in the making–unless she has made contingency plans. Here are some ways to make sure that your event has a speaker, and on time.
Contract Clauses
Make it part of your contract with a speaker that he or she will provide a replacement in the event of absence. Make sure you have all the pertinent information about the replacement’s travel plans, contact information, etc., as you would have for the original speaker.
Web Speeches
Make an agreement with your client that if an important speaker gets grounded in another city, he can make himself available by webcast. Set this up in advance so that you don’t have to scramble at the last minute, which almost ensures failure under these circumstances.
Prerecordings
Another possibility may be a pre-recorded speech. Nothing is quite the same as a personal appearance, but if an airport is socked in from weather problems and a webcast gets rubber out for one reason or another, you have one more backup plan.
Last Minute Local
Every town has great speakers, even small towns with no Toastmaster club. There are two ways to approach this possibility: either get the local to deliver the other speaker’s words, or have them deliver their own.
There are no doubt many more ways to approach this problem that exceed the scope and depth of this humble blog. Do some mind-storming and be prepared.
Tags: Absence, Backup Plan, Blog, Circumstances, Contingency Plans, Contract Clauses, Disaster, Failure, Last Minute, Meeting Planner, No Doubt, Personal Appearance, Scope, Speakers, Speeches, Time Contract, Toastmaster Club, Two Ways, Weather Problems
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