This month's news
In this month’s newsletter we're discussing a new recruit who’s joined the Matchett fold; how to manage in our radically changing world; the importance of winning and keeping customers and; a couple of light-hearted stories to brighten your day.
Matchett Recruit New Principle Consultant, Seth Wainwright - Seth has worked extensively with global blue-chip organisations, facilitating successful management development and interpersonal skills programmes. Seth has earned a first-class reputation at all levels, from designing and delivering organisational learning programs to the 1-to-1 coaching of senior executives. He has written several magazine articles and been a conference key-note speaker…click here for more
How to Manage Your Job in a Radically Changing World – Are you a little tired of uncertainty and ambiguity? Are you finding it difficult to manage your people’s expectations? Here are a few useful tips on how to manage your job during radical change … click here for more
Huge Surge in Demand for ‘Winning and Keeping Customers’ Course - Unsurprisingly, Matchett is witnessing a surge for requests for training courses related to winning and retaining customers. Many of our customers have existing internal training programmes that are usually technical focused with some general sales skills training … click here for more
The Credit Crunch Doesn’t Exist - The newspapers are all writing about it, the TV and radio stations are full of people talking about it, the masses are all chin-wagging about it, and business people are all afraid of it … click here for more
Interesting Thought - If you had purchased £1,000 of Northern Rock shares one year ago it would now be worth £4.95. With HBOS, earlier this week your £1,000 would have been worth £16.50. £1,000 invested in XL Leisure would now be worth zero.
However, if you bought £1,000 worth of Tennants Lager one year ago, drank it all, then took the empty cans to an aluminium re-cycling plant, you would get £214.
Therefore, based on the above statistics, the best, current investment advice, is to drink heavily and re-cycle.
You know it makes sense!
Seth has worked extensively with global blue-chip organisations, facilitating successful management development and interpersonal skills programmes. Matchett recruited Seth as he is highly personable and an experienced consultant who brings impact, passion and cutting-edge knowledge to the learning experience. He particularly specialises in the development of professional relationships, communication and presentation skills, sales and customer service skills, influencing skills and emotional intelligence.
Seth has earned a first-class reputation at all levels, from designing and delivering organisational learning programs to the 1-to-1 coaching of senior executives. He has written several magazine articles and been a conference keynote speaker within the International Wealth Management Industry.
Seth studied Drama and Stage-Craft at St John’s University College, York and realised much of the learning could be applied to every-day life situations, and would benefit anyone looking to develop an ability to craft their personal impact and communicate more influentially. Seth began his learning career applying this knowledge to telecommunications customer service and sales staff, before branching out into other inter-personal skills areas.
Having spent much of his time between London and India, for the last three years Seth has been working as a learning consultant within Private Banking and Wealth Management in the UK, Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Seth has already received rave reviews from our clients. Amongst others, he has successfully delivered a graduate programme at Jaguar/Land Rover and our cutting edge ‘Managing Remote and Virtual Teams’ at Carphone Warehouse.
“Somebody has to do something, and it’s just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us” – Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead
As the Portfolio Manager at Matchett I usually receive two or three books a week to review, frankly many are quickly forgotten however, there are a few which are both insightful and memorable. Not a new book but particularly relevant in today’s climate is ‘New Work Habits for a Radically Changing World’, by Dr. Prince Pritchett.
Not only is it insightful, it is short, at only 52 pages. Now, you might say it is just a broad-brush perspective, and you would be right. However, it is also perceptive, sometimes humorous and in-depth enough to keep the attention of a woman like me who has started dozens of books, but never has the time to finish them.
I would like to share some of Dr. Pritchett's points. He outlines 13 guidelines for managing your job during radical change:
Pritchett is a psychologist who has written many books on employee and employer relationships. His ground rules should be required reading. He points out that careers come and go. Jobs change. This is nothing new; it's just happening faster than ever before. He reports that, in 1950, 73 percent of U.S. employees worked in production or manufacturing. Now, fewer than 15 percent do. Times are changing, and fast.
Matchett offer a range of change management courses to help people both manage and deal with change. They range from 2-hours to 2-days. Contact us for more information.
Laura Whitworth, portfolio manager
Unsurprisingly, Matchett is witnessing a surge of requests for training courses related to winning and retaining customers. Many of our customers have existing internal training programmes that are predominantly technical focused, with some general sales skills training.
The result is many of the teams have excellent knowledge of their product or service, but their structure and approach is inconsistent. We have found that by working with the client to consolidate their experience and implement best practice, we can assist them in achieving their business goals.
Increasingly, companies can no longer compete on products or price - their competitors very quickly match these.
New research carried out by SPSS Inc. has revealed customer retention as a top priority for European businesses, as consumers become less brand loyal and more price sensitive. Around a third of businesses cited customer retention as a key concern, compared with just 8 percent who are focusing on acquisition.
The one thing that differentiates a company from its competition is the service it provides to its customers. Your customer-facing staff have a great responsibility to get it right first time!
Matchett offer a range of customer service and sales skills courses. Through consultation with the client, we tailor our courses to achieve their specific objectives.
Our current, most popular one-day course is our ‘Winning and Keeping Customers’ course. We cover the core aspects of customer care, helping employees from across the organisation to appreciate the impact they have on customer service. The workshop focuses on the skills and techniques that will help improve relationship management.
Following our programmes, clients are reporting their people are able to:
This workshop is for employees who interface with customers and who want to enhance their relationship-building skills. It will also provide managers and team leaders with examples of best practice in customer service.
Throughout this practical course, we encourage participants to share ideas and experiences and generate ways to improve customer service in their organisation. There are combinations of formal input and group work to identify customer service principles and practical sessions to enable participants to practise skills in a safe environment.
If you’re interested in this course or having a tailor-made course in this subject area designed for you, contact us now.
A mock up of how a Credit Crunch might have looked.
The newspapers are all writing about it, the TV and radio stations are full of people talking about it, the masses are all chin-wagging about it, and business people are all afraid of it.
However, new research suggests the popular Credit Crunch is a myth. In a survey commissioned jointly by Sugar Daddies and Sherbet Dips, 1,000 researchers were sent out to corner shops all over the UK. Not one of them was able to find a Credit Crunch.
"We saw lots of Dairy Crunch, Dairy Milk, Crunchies, Kit-Kats, Twix and Revels," said the organiser of the survey, Joe King. "But not one of the shops we spoke to has been able to get hold of a Credit Crunch.
"We think it may have been just made up by shopkeepers to get everyone into their shops."
But Mr Passwinder, head of the Corner Shop Confectioners Association, said they had not invented the Credit Crunch in a bid to drum up trade.
"It's true, we have had lots of people coming into our shops asking for the Credit Crunch," he said, "…and customer numbers are up on last year, but we have not invented anything to try to fool people.
"In fact, we are currently too busy anyway preparing for the arrival into our shops of the exciting new Global Meltdown. Ask for it at your nearest corner shop. It will be delicious."
Written by Angus McFiddle courtesy of www.thespoof.com