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We all need to keep speaking to our customers (From Business in Dorset)
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We all need to keep speaking to our customers
10:56am Wednesday 29th October 2008
NOW that the governor of the Bank of England has finally confirmed what many of us already knew – that the UK economy is in recession – businesses need to decide what to do about it.
Ignoring it is certainly not an option because the effect can be seen right across the world.
Even the emerging markets that might have helped some of the western democracies are caught up in the domino effect.
Getting back to basics is a much abused phrase but it certainly applies to the situation we find ourselves in.
All business, from the high street giants to small one-person concerns, will need to keep their customers if they are going to survive.
“If you don’t talk to your customers someone else will” is the phrase often used in sales training courses.
The current trading conditions mean customers have even more choice but price is not the only criteria, service really matters.
Any organisation is only as good as the person who speaks to the customer.
On a lighter note, during my varied role as president of Dorset Business I had cause to visit Avonbourne School in Bournemouth to discuss their role in creating the business people of tomorrow.
I am not qualified to comment on their educational performance, which appears to be excellent. However with the level of enthusiasm displayed by the pupils, our future seems to be in safe hands!
Mike Wright President, Dorset Business (the Chamber of Commerce & industry)
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We all need to keep speaking to our customers
Kevin Dixon, Bournemouth says...
2:59pm Sat 15 Nov 08
The current financial crisis has made us all reflect upon our values, what is important to us and what is not.
The current climate for success is differnt than it was yesterday.
Looking back to the days before the first world war, at a time when we can remember our fathers, and grandfathers who returned home from the trenches in France; and a decade later, encounted the great depression; we should recall that business was integral to the idea of enlightenment, and many entrepreneurs had a strong a strong sense of community, and what was right and wrong. The making of profit was 'cleansed' by the idea of hard work, and a belief in the value of hard work in itself.
The current focus on corporate governance, sustainability and social responsibility, re-positions the company as an engine for social change and improvement within the community. That is why business must make ethical values central to their work, whether this relates to green issues, environment, or working conditions of employees. Standrads matter, and customers are increasingly demanding that services provide quality ethically.
Some parts of business managment and boards may have forgotten the historical roots of enlightened entrepreneurs, and that 'a better way of living' emanated from hard-working men and women who suffered two world wars which brought substantial changes in education after the second world war: these were truly radical changes that provided feree access to education and health services.
That is why ethical leadership, is required today on these Islands, as it is beginning to come form the United States. The election of Obama makes it clear that business depends on a wider appreciation of the customer, as citizens of wider society.
Business, here and now, needs to engage with the community on a local basis with wider society in mind.
The iddea of creating products and services that continue to be meaningful in the current economic climate, focussing on a wider analysis of stakeholders, and with a strong understanding of the place and shape of things to come.
Yours sincerely,
Kevin Dixon
Cross Boundary Solutions Ltd
Bournemouth