"GETTING THE TILLS RINGING" INGREDIENTS TO RUNNING A SUCCESSFUL RURAL BUSINESS" PRESENTATION NOTES

"GETTING THE TILLS RINGING" INGREDIENTSTO RUNNING A SUCCESSFULRURAL BUSINESS" PRESENTATION NOTES Peter Kenyon Director Bank of IDEAS (Initiatives for the Development of Enterprising Action and Strategies) Ph: 08 9433 2222 Fax: 08 9433 2999 email:pk @ bankofideas.com.au web: www. bankofideas.com.au

‘In times of change it is the learners who inherit the future. Those who have finished learning find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists' (Eric Hoffer)

‘We have to abandon the idea that schooling is something restricted to youth. How can it be, in a world when half the things a man knows at 20 are no longer true at 40 - and half the things he knows at 40 hadn't been discovered when he was 20’ (Arthur C Clarke)

‘IDEAS MAKE THE WORLD GO AROUND. PEOPLE IN BUSINESS TODAY LIVE AND DIE BY THEIR IDEAS.’ (Michael Kiely)

IMPORTANCE OF THE EXISTING • BUSINESS BASE: • creates between 60-80% of new jobs • provides most of the investment for new community economic initiatives / infrastructure • often generates ideas about possible new businesses • often acts as an attraction for outside businesses to relocate or establish within the community

‘The mechanics of running a business are really not complicated when you get down to the essentials. You have to make some stuff and sell if for more than it cost you. That's about all there is to it, except for a few million details.’ (John L McCaffrey)

CHALLENGES FOR RURAL BUSINESSES • Declining economics • Regional centre development • Increased mobility of consumers • Growth of category killers • Growth of major supermarkets • Increasing number of national chains and • franchises (with emphasis on customer • service, product mix, shop displays, • corporate advertising) • Extended trading hours • Growth in E-commerce and developing • technology • Growth in mail ordering • Town leakage • Diversion of shopping centres towards • leisure, entertainment and customer services • GST • (Threats or opportunities)

‘GOOD ENOUGH NEVER IS’ Stories of 20 exceptional and inspirational businesses from rural and remote Australia

CASE STUDY BEECHWORTH BAKERY • The Bakery: • Employs 70 people, and another 46 at ‘Beechworth Bakery • at Echuca’ • - Turns over $3 million plus per year • - Took $30,000 over the counter on one day (Easter Saturday) • - Attracts over 680,000 customers per year • - Offers 260 products • - Seats 300 customers • Has won the most significant Regional Tourism • Award in Victoria 3 times

LESSONS • LOVE CASH FLOW • 2. PRACTICE POSITIVELY OUTRAGEOUS CUSTOMER SERVICE • 3. BANISH THE BLAND AND DARE TO BE DIFFERENT IN MARKETING • 4. RECOGNISE, EXCITE AND EXTEND STAFF • 5. NETWORK AND CROSS PROMOTE WITH OTHER BUSINESSES • 6. BE IDEA OBSESSIVE • 7. AVOID THE DREAM TAKERS AND ENERGY SUCKERS • 8. BE PASSIONATE

1. LOVE CASH FLOW ‘You’ve got to love cash flow. You then will want to given that little bit extra’ (Tom O’Toole, Beechworth Baker)

PARONELLA PARK IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS THAT MAKE THE DIFFERENCE TO THE CUSTOMER • ‘meet and greet’ in the car park • ‘Our Guarantee’ (see over) • Privileged card • 200 umbrellas for use on wet days • Free insect repellent • Free iced water • Driving service for visitors with walking difficulties • Raincheck cards • Commission free booking service • Dog sitting service

Our Guarantee Paronella Park aims to give it’s Customers an experience of a life time. If your *visit to Paronella Park was not a “not to be forgotten” experience we will gladly refund your admission charge.

2. PRACTICE POSITIVELY OUTRAGEOUS CUSTOMER SERVICE WHY RETAILERS LOSE CUSTOMERS? • 1% Die 3% Move Away 5% Develop Other Loyalties 9% Dislike the Company Policy 14% Find Product and/or Price • Policies Alternatives 68% Object to the Indifference or Attitude • of the Staff

‘Purpose of a business is to find and keep customers’ (Unknown)

QUOTES FROM THE BEECHWORTH BAKERY STAFF HANDBOOK • ‘Who runs the Bakery? – The Customers’ • ‘We have only 3 Rules in the Bakery – Rule 1 - Take care of the customer Rule 2 - Take care of the customer Rule 3 - Take care of the customer? • ‘Beechworth Bakery policy is to drop everything for the customer’ • ‘If we don’t take care of our customers someone else will’ • ‘The customer may not always be right, but they must be made to feel so!’

SOME COLD HARD FACTSABOUT WINNING AND KEEPING CUSTOMERS FACT: On average, one dissatisfied customer will tell 11 others who on average will tell 5 others (i.e., 67 bits of negative advertising) FACT: It takes 12 positive service incidents to make up for one negative incident. FACT: A typical business hears from only 4% of its dissatisfied customers. The other 96% just go quietly away and 91% of them will never come back. FACT: Seven out of 10 complaining customers will do business with you again if you resolve the complaint in their favour. If you resolve it on the spot, 95% will do business with you again.

FACT: The average Australian business will turn over 10-30% of its existing customers this year – most because of poor service. Most of these customers could have been retained. FACT: Businesses with low service quality lose 2% market share a year. Those with high service quality gain 6% market share a year. FACT: Businesses providing quality service can charge up to 9% more for their products and services. FACT: It costs 6 times as much to gain a new customer as it does to keep an old one. FACT: A really satisfied customer will, on average, generate at least 7 extra customers. ______________

What Customers are Looking For • Good service • Value • Convenience • Choices • Information • Fun, new and exciting shoppingopportunities

"Customers vote with their feet. They go where they find the kind of service they want. Research shows that Companies that hit on winning service formulas are profitable, grow in market share, and inspire a lot of highly positive word of mouth commentary among the people they satisfy". (Ron Zemke and Dick Schauf, 'The Service Edge')

ANITA RODDICK’S 20 SECOND CRASH COURSE IN CUSTOMER CARE • Never treat customers as enemies, approach them as potential friends. Think of customers as guests, make them laugh. Acknowledge their presence within 30 seconds: smile, make eye contact,say hello. Talk to them within the first 3 minutes. Offer product advice where appropriate. SMILE. Always thank customers and invite them back. TREAT CUSTOMERS AS YOU’D LIKE TO BE TREATED.

EXAMPLE • Our Pledge • You will always be welcomed with prompt, courteous service. • Our offices, work sites and visitor centers will be open at times convenient to our customers. • You will receive the services and information you request, or • we will explain why we cannot meet the request. • You will be fully informed of the processes required for grants, • agreements, contracts and permits, and we will respond • in a timely manner. • You will be asked regularly to help us improve our services • and business practice. • Our facilities will be safe, clean, attractive and informative. • Our facilities and programs will be accessible to persons of all • ages and abilities. • United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENT A COMPLAINT AND RECOVERY • POLICY AND PROCESS • Redress a customer concern immediately • Make it easy to complain – analyze and respond to all complaints • Use complaints as an opportunity to perform Positively Outrageous Service • The Positively Outrageous Service Rules for Apology • When in doubt – apologize • Apologize even when the customer doesn’t know you goofed • Always make amends in excess of the slip up • Empower everyone to solve problems (according to T Scott Gross) ‘MISTAKES ARE INEVITABLE – DISSATISFIED CUSTOMERS ARE NOT’ (Chris Daffey)

‘ANY BUSINESS THAT DOESN’T HAVE A SYSTEM FOR CUSTOMER FEEDBACK IS A SOLUTION LOOKING FOR A PROBLEM.’ (Scott Gross)

We communicate with our customers via leaflets and posters and information boards in the shops, and they cancommunicate with us through the suggestion boxes to be found in every shop. We don’t just pay lip service to their views – six members of staff work full-time cataloguing their suggestions and replying to them. In addition we hold regular forums, when we open up a shop from six till nine in the evening and invite customers to come and tell us what they like, what they don’t like, and what products they would like to see added to the range. It has always been Body Shop policy to find out what customers want by simply askingthem, a concept thought to be eccentric in the retail trade. (Anita Roddick, The Body Shop)

‘ I believe the simplest way to run the business is to ask the customer. It’s like having a free consulting service working for you full time… In the early days, I was under the impression that we couldn’t grow anymore. We were turning over about $1.5 million a year. If you’re turning $1.5 million cash over a bakery counter in Australia, you’re doing pretty good. I stuck these customer comment boxes in and they told me how to do it better, and I started to grow.’ ( Tom O’Toole )

THE ESSENTIALS • Smile • Acknowledge customers within 30 seconds (smile, eye contact, say ‘Hi’) • Speak to customers within 3 minutes • Answer telephone before its 4th ring • Redress a customer’s concern immediately • Keep any promises • Use customer’s name • Seek customer feedback • Smile • (Peter Kenyon)

3.BANISH THE BLAND AND DARE TO BE DIFFERENT IN MARKETING ‘Banish the bland’ (Chris Daffey) ‘Dare to be different’ (Barry Urquart) ‘I am the world’s worst salesman. Therefore I must make it easy for people to buy’ (F W Woolworth)

LARRY'S SHOES • - Largest shoe store in the world - • incorporates a shoe museum featuring shoes from people like Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, John Kennedy, Judy Garland etc • free coffee at Cappuccino Bar • physical therapist who gives complimentary foot massages on Sundays • and holidays • big screen TVs showing latest sports programs • selection of more than 30,000 pairs of men's shoes in 2,000 styles • new staff receive 64 hours of training before they go onto the floor • staff have business cards, thank you notes and birthday cards they • can send customers • 30 day 'walk test guarantee' promoted on big posters throughout the store

HUMOUR – SIGNS ‘ALL OF OUR CHRISTMAS TREES ARE ADJUSTABLE – WE HAVE A CHAINSAW OUT THE BACK!’ (HARDWARE STORE) ‘BACK IN 5 MINUTES….SIT, STAY’ (VET SURGERY) ‘MY BUSINESS SUCKS’ (CARPET CLEANING BUSINESS) ‘DRIVE CAREFULLY….WE’LL WAIT’ (FUNERAL PARLOUR) ‘THIS IS THE BEST PLACE TO TAKE A LEAK’ (RADIATOR REPAIRER) ‘IF I CAN GET YOU TO LAUGH WITH ME YOU’LL LIKE ME BETTER, WHICH MAKES YOU MORE OPEN TO MY IDEAS’ (JOHN CLEESE)

4. RECOGNISE, EXCITE AND EXTEND YOUR STAFF • ‘What if I train my people and they leave? • What if you don’t train them and they stay!’ • (Tom O’Toole, Beechworth Baker) • Share the vision and dreams • Encourage 'out of the box' thinking , innovation and improvements • Give powers of discretion and responsibility • Outline parameters and guidelines • Provide training and peak experiences • Celebrate and reward excellence

‘You educate people, especially young people, by stirring their passions, so you take every opportunity to grab the imagination of your employees, you get them to feel they are doing something important, that they are not a lone voice, that they are the most powerful and potent people on the planet’ (Anita Roddick, The Body Shop)

"There are two thingspeople want more thansex and money …. recognition and praise" (Mary Kay Ash) "Catch people doing something right" (Ken Blanchard, Author, 'The One Minute Manager')

5. NETWORK AND CROSS PROMOTE WITH OTHER BUSINESSES ‘What goes out,must come back’ (Buddhist saying)

6. BE IDEA OBSESSIVE ‘Ideas make the world go around. People in business today live and die by their ideas’ (Michael Kiely)

We can no longer wait for ideas to occur by chance or through the slow process of evolutionary pressure. There is a need to focus directly on the generation, design and development of new ideas. Edward de Bono

7. AVOID THE DREAM TAKERS AND NEGATIVE ENERGY SUCKERS ‘Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” (Mark Twain)

8. BE PASSIONATE ‘A man without a smiling facemust not open a shop’ (Chinese proverb)

‘PASSION. IF YOUR HEART’S NOT IN IT, GET OUT. THE SKY’S THE LIMIT IF YOUR HEART’S IN IT. YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE ENTHUSIASM. IF YOU HAVEN’T GOT ENTHUSIASM YOU’RE BUGGERED!’ 'WE HAVE TO BE PASSIONATE IN EVERYTHING WE DO AND SAY.I CAN'T BEAR TO BE AROUND PEOPLEWHO ARE BLAND OR BORED.THERE'SA BREED OF BRAIN DEAD, GUM CHEWING ASSISTANTSIN SO MANY SHOPS, I WANT OUR PEOPLE TO FEEL EXCITEMENT ABOUT OUR CULTURE AND OUR PRODUCT!' (Tom O’Toole, Beechworth Baker)

PASSION (and lots of it) 'If you want to build a ship, don't round up people to gather wood and dish out work. But teach them the desire for the wide endless ocean' (Antoine de Saint Exupery) 'If I had to nominate a driving force in my life, I'd plump for PASSION every time. My passionate belief is that business can be fun, it can be conducted with love and a powerful force for good.' (Anita Roddick, The Body Shop) 'To me, what is wonderful about The Body Shop is that we still don't know the rules. Instead, we have a basic understanding that to run this business you don't have to know anything. Skill is not the answer, neither is money. What you need is optimism, humanism, intuition, curiosity, love, humour, magic and fun and that secret ingredient, euphoria. None of this appears on the curriculum of any business school'. (Anita Roddick, The Body Shop)

"I think negative people should be taxed. They require an incredible amount of energy. They're like corgis nibbling at your ankles and I'm sure they exist to show us the difference between heaven and hell" (Mayor Vicki Buck, Christchurch City Council)

‘When facing a difficult task, act as if it isimpossible to fail. When going after Moby Dick, bring along the tartare sauce’(author unknown)‘Aerodynamically the bumble bee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn’t know it, so it goes on flying anyway’(Mary Kay Nash)

TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN BUSINESS, ONE NEEDS TO BE: BOLD DIFFERENT and FIRST (Anita Roddick, Founder, The Body Shop)

contact…PETER KENYON Ph: 08 6293 1848 Fax: 08 6293 1137 14 Bird Road, KALAMUNDA, WA 6076 email: pk@bankofideas.com.au website: www.bankofideas.com.au

"GETTING THE TILLS RINGING" INGREDIENTS TO RUNNING A SUCCESSFUL RURAL BUSINESS" PRESENTATION NOTES