Laughter is good for business

I hear many claims that children laugh more frequently than adults. One such claim states that children laugh 300 times a day on average whereas adults only 20 times a day, by implication this appears that as adults we become too serious and are missing out on joy or happiness.  Having extensively researched these claims I cannot find a scientific study that supports these statistics.  There are however numerous studies that endorse the claim that laughter is a great medicine.  Yes there are some sad people who rarely laugh and there are just as many who laugh a lot.  Apparently it is also stated that adults do laugh more at what they have just said rather than what somebody else says!!

My experience in business allows me to emphatically state that laughter is not only good for business it is great for business.  Whether as a leader/manager laughter can be a tension remover, a conflict solver, a stress preventer, a team bonder and a productivity enhancer.  However, there is one big proviso here, humour from the boss must never be sarcastic.

When our clients/customers are laughing with us they are buying.  Humour and laughter becomes a great relationship builder and will increase customer retention.  We all know that people do business with people they like if they have choice and we must make an effort to be nice people to do business with and buying from us is an enjoyable experience. Humour is one of the major ingredients to that word enjoyable.

We like people we can laugh with and in this ‘the age of the customer’ people have choice and they are more likely to choose people they can have a laugh with.

Customers Rule OK

 

Guy Arnold’s excellent book, Great or Poor, states “it costs six times more to get a new customer than to keep one.”  Very few businesses have any idea of what it costs to get a new customer.  There are even fewer who have a programme for measuring the cost of customer acquisition.  The few that do are able to plan their growth and allocate sufficient resources to create a sales and marketing operation that inevitably achieves a pre-set budget.

We all know that any business that is not attracting new customers will eventually go bust.  

The point that I am eventually getting around to making is that in today’s marketplace the power is with the customer.  I continually bang on about being customer lead and sales driven.  This means a change of mindset for the vast majority of British business and those that will struggle the most are those who have been trading for many years and of course the bigger the company the greater the challenge for adopting change.

I am continually suggesting in my consultancy and business training programmes that the sales and marketing budget must include customer care and that customer care must come under the umbrella of the sales and marketing people.  Most companies are claiming that customer care and quality service is their priority but the departments with this portfolio are equipped with poorly trained staff recently seconded from the customer prevention department with the culture that the customer is wrong even when they are right.

It can take 20 years to build a brand and 20 minutes to destroy it.  Most destruction comes from within and is self-destruction.

We are going to see more and more self-destruction exposed on the internet by stupid and crass decisions made that upset and alienate customers as against making the customer a friend and ambassador.  

If you want to make money you must deserve the support, the loyalty, the enthusiasm and the willingness of your customers to promote your product and brand.  Just remember…”the customer rules, OK!”

Worry Does Not Help Tomorrow’s Troubles

My thought for the day on Tuesday 6 May about worry is so hard to manage, control and of course implement.  If only we could get rid of those worries! 

I have not taken a daily newspaper for years as a deliberate attempt to not fill my brain with negativity and reduce some of the worries, (concerns and fears of our troubled world) most of which I can do little or nothing to assist or prevent.  

Of course there is a balance of being socially responsible and just as importantly being aware of events that are relevant to my family, business and clients.  

Worry comes from the Anglo Saxon word weirgan which means to strangle and to choke until there is no life left.  

The most effective way to handle worry and redress the balance if worries are ruining your day is to ask yourself; 

1. Can I do something about this?  If yes, then get on and do it!
2. If no, amazingly the worry is dissipated by simply asking the question.

If you start to action dealing with the worry, the worry is no longer a worry but a situation and as my clients know that is so much better than a problem.

Criticising others is a career

The ex president of the USA, George Bush Junior, who entertained us liberally with his misuse of our language (Americans don’t have one so my American wife Dottie tells me), has taken up painting in his retirement.  He apparently has allowed some of the public to view his works and particularly the portraits of world leaders he has committed to canvas.

Well, good on him. I hear he takes lessons and is obviously enjoying his time and doing his best with his hobby, not causing harm to anybody and possibly those pictures will bring pleasure to many.

Listening to the opinions on the radio of the so called art critics I confess I became a Mr Angry of Tunbridge Wells (I do know Tunbridge Wells extremely well and there are also many Mr & Mrs Happy residents too).

There is so much misery and trouble in our world created by human conflict, so to hear the verbal abuse and mockery of Mr Bush’s painting skills and artistic talents delivered by these so called ‘intellectual’ critics is very depressing. Fancy making a living by criticising other people who actually do produce something!  Surely one does not have to have much of a brain to find fault. In the UK it has been a national pastime for many, fed by a thirsty media to debunk, destroy and discredit those that do something. It appears that there are those that do and those who criticise. 

No monument has ever been erected to a critic; monuments are only erected to those who have been criticised.