Friday, December 02, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Social Media Masterclass
Just to let you know that we still heve a few places left on our Social Media Masterclass on Monday 24th October in Manchester and Tuesday 25th October in Leeds. If you are not using Social Media effectively to grow your business, then now is a good time to start.
During the Masterclass we will cover:
• Using LinkedIn to grow your ness
• How to intigrate your Social Media Marketing
• How to use YouTube and video marketing
• Facebook for business
• How businesses can systemise Twitter
• How to use Social Media to drive people to your website
• And much more.
For further information click this link.
Kind regards,
Frank
During the Masterclass we will cover:
• Using LinkedIn to grow your ness
• How to intigrate your Social Media Marketing
• How to use YouTube and video marketing
• Facebook for business
• How businesses can systemise Twitter
• How to use Social Media to drive people to your website
• And much more.
For further information click this link.
Kind regards,
Frank
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Gary Player Country Club - Your decision....
As you know I travel constantly around the world and experience great customer service almost everywhere I go, especially in Asia.
I have returned to my home country South Africa for a vacation and booked into Sun City for the week.
Unfortunately my experience of customer service here leaves a lot to be desired. In fact, this will not be on my list of places to visit in the future.
Today I decided to treat the two ladies in my life to manicure, pedicures and hair treatments (at London prices) at the Gary Player Country Club.
My mom is in a wheelchair and as there is a massive staircase, I decided to take her in the elevator. Imagine my surprise when I found the elevator full of furniture which I had to unload myself.
The elevator was in such a bad state of repair that my mom was a nervous wreck when we reached the top. It stopped and started, jolted and at one stage I thought we were going to drop to the ground.
My mom said that she would rather slide down the staircase than get into the elevator again.
I asked for the manageress, Ms Vermaak, who was no help at all. She just pushed the blame onto maintainance and said that is it was ok with them, there was nothing she could do about it.
As I had to sit around waiting for two and a half hours, I asked if Marie and I could use the jacuzzi as I was going to spend a substantial amount on the treatments.
I was told that as they were going to have the treatments, they could use it, but not me.
I said that my mom would not be using it, so could I use it in her place.
I was told that the rules stated that under no circumstances could that happen.
Don't you hate it when bad customer service always hides under the 'rules'.
How easy would it have been for her as a manager to allow me to use it while waiting, but unfortunately her service experience did not allow her to even think of that.
How sad, a wonderful country club and resort is so badly let down by lack of service.
Fortunately for me, I am an international speaker, so will be sharing this story with thousands of people in my talks and books around the world.
My only advice to the Gary Player Country Club would be to buy a copy of my book 'Walking with Tigers - success secrets of the world's top business leaders' and read the section on Pam Wilby who manages the Le Royal Meridien Hotel in Dubai.
They could learn a lot......well maybe not
I have returned to my home country South Africa for a vacation and booked into Sun City for the week.
Unfortunately my experience of customer service here leaves a lot to be desired. In fact, this will not be on my list of places to visit in the future.
Today I decided to treat the two ladies in my life to manicure, pedicures and hair treatments (at London prices) at the Gary Player Country Club.
My mom is in a wheelchair and as there is a massive staircase, I decided to take her in the elevator. Imagine my surprise when I found the elevator full of furniture which I had to unload myself.
The elevator was in such a bad state of repair that my mom was a nervous wreck when we reached the top. It stopped and started, jolted and at one stage I thought we were going to drop to the ground.
My mom said that she would rather slide down the staircase than get into the elevator again.
I asked for the manageress, Ms Vermaak, who was no help at all. She just pushed the blame onto maintainance and said that is it was ok with them, there was nothing she could do about it.
As I had to sit around waiting for two and a half hours, I asked if Marie and I could use the jacuzzi as I was going to spend a substantial amount on the treatments.
I was told that as they were going to have the treatments, they could use it, but not me.
I said that my mom would not be using it, so could I use it in her place.
I was told that the rules stated that under no circumstances could that happen.
Don't you hate it when bad customer service always hides under the 'rules'.
How easy would it have been for her as a manager to allow me to use it while waiting, but unfortunately her service experience did not allow her to even think of that.
How sad, a wonderful country club and resort is so badly let down by lack of service.
Fortunately for me, I am an international speaker, so will be sharing this story with thousands of people in my talks and books around the world.
My only advice to the Gary Player Country Club would be to buy a copy of my book 'Walking with Tigers - success secrets of the world's top business leaders' and read the section on Pam Wilby who manages the Le Royal Meridien Hotel in Dubai.
They could learn a lot......well maybe not
Friday, August 19, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Has Virgin Atlantic lost the plot by Frank Furness
As a professional speaker, I make around 40 international flights each year. Unfortunately they can’t all be with the same airline as I am at the whim of my clients. I have tried to stick to Virgin, Singapore, BA and Emirates if possible to maximise my mileage points.
I have been very loyal to Virgin over the years and even have a Virgin Amex card that I use for all my business expenses (about £30,000 a year).
I am currently on a flight with Virgin to Shanghai (this is my fourth international flight with Virgin this year) and experienced the worst customer service ever with any airline. With this flight, my client gave me the choice of a higher fee and economy class or a lower fee and business class, so I thought I would go for economy as the flying time was not that long and I could watch a couple of movies and do some work.
When checking in, I told them that I was 6ft 2in and asked if the aircraft was very full and if at all possible I could get a seat with an empty seat next to me. He told me that the flight was full and that every seat was taken. When I entered the aircraft, I noticed that there were a number of rows of empty seats in economy and asked if I could move to one of them. I was told that I could if I paid an extra £30 which I duly did thinking ‘what a con.....’
A number of other passengers also opted to pay the £30 for the flight which was collected in cash (I saw no receipts being given), so I insisted on paying for mine with my card and getting a receipt. Is this a new tactic to collect money stealthily by Virgin, I have never seen it before.
Three hours into the flight the entertainment system was still not working, but I expected that as it has happened to me on my last three flights with Virgin (do they ever get serviced)
The service was below par and twice when I went to the toilets they were in a filthy state with no toilet paper or tissues.
I am used to having a choice of snacks when flying, but was told that there are no snacks on Virgin.
When it came to breakfast time, I was told that I could only have one choice as they had run out of the others. I asked for a second cup of coffee and was told that I could go to the back of the plane and get myself a cup if there was any left.
By this time I felt like I was on a ‘Faulty Towers’ aircraft and asked to see the chief purser. This request was ignored twice and when I eventually got to see her I was told that a lot of crew were sick and instead of a full crew of 30, this aircraft only had 10 crew and it was not her fault that the service was bad because they were understaffed. I asked that if I was only getting 30% of the service, could I opt to only pay 30% of my ticket, you can guess the answer.
This has really soured my view of Virgin who I had a lot of respect for in the early days when Richard Branson still was actively involved.
The bad news is that I have another flight booked with Virgin in 2 months....the first thing I do when I arrive is to phone my agent and ask him to change it to another airline.
I have also decided to move my Virgin Amex card to British Airways Amex after discovering that BA gives a free partner ticket for every £10,000 spent. I have just lost out on 3 tickets with Virgin as they don’t do this.
I speak and present on sales and customer service and feel that virgin have really lost the plot. From my experiences this year, their service sucks (they have even outsourced their check in, how can you control customer service this way).
I personally feel that Virgin should go back to basics and take some lessons from Singapore airlines or even Air Asia.
Air Asia is a company that specialises in low cost flights around Asia, but combine that with great customer service. I always use them if I am flying short hops in Asia.
They are a company that I speak about in my presentations as an example of great value combined with great service. I was fortunate enough to meet their CEO, Tony Fernandez, at one of my talks in Malaysia recently and he is a super person with great stories about the company.
He decided to build his own airport a few miles from Kuala Lumpur International Airport and now has more than double the number of people going through his airport than KLIA.
How is it that some companies get it right when it comes to value and service and other lose the plot?
Virgin used to be a great airline and I was a loyal client.
From now on, not only am I going to avoid using Virgin Atlantic whenever I can, I will also be telling the story of my experiences to thousands of people around the world.
Please comment on your experience with Virgin Atlantic or any other good or bad experience you have had with an airline.
I have been very loyal to Virgin over the years and even have a Virgin Amex card that I use for all my business expenses (about £30,000 a year).
I am currently on a flight with Virgin to Shanghai (this is my fourth international flight with Virgin this year) and experienced the worst customer service ever with any airline. With this flight, my client gave me the choice of a higher fee and economy class or a lower fee and business class, so I thought I would go for economy as the flying time was not that long and I could watch a couple of movies and do some work.
When checking in, I told them that I was 6ft 2in and asked if the aircraft was very full and if at all possible I could get a seat with an empty seat next to me. He told me that the flight was full and that every seat was taken. When I entered the aircraft, I noticed that there were a number of rows of empty seats in economy and asked if I could move to one of them. I was told that I could if I paid an extra £30 which I duly did thinking ‘what a con.....’
A number of other passengers also opted to pay the £30 for the flight which was collected in cash (I saw no receipts being given), so I insisted on paying for mine with my card and getting a receipt. Is this a new tactic to collect money stealthily by Virgin, I have never seen it before.
Three hours into the flight the entertainment system was still not working, but I expected that as it has happened to me on my last three flights with Virgin (do they ever get serviced)
The service was below par and twice when I went to the toilets they were in a filthy state with no toilet paper or tissues.
I am used to having a choice of snacks when flying, but was told that there are no snacks on Virgin.
When it came to breakfast time, I was told that I could only have one choice as they had run out of the others. I asked for a second cup of coffee and was told that I could go to the back of the plane and get myself a cup if there was any left.
By this time I felt like I was on a ‘Faulty Towers’ aircraft and asked to see the chief purser. This request was ignored twice and when I eventually got to see her I was told that a lot of crew were sick and instead of a full crew of 30, this aircraft only had 10 crew and it was not her fault that the service was bad because they were understaffed. I asked that if I was only getting 30% of the service, could I opt to only pay 30% of my ticket, you can guess the answer.
This has really soured my view of Virgin who I had a lot of respect for in the early days when Richard Branson still was actively involved.
The bad news is that I have another flight booked with Virgin in 2 months....the first thing I do when I arrive is to phone my agent and ask him to change it to another airline.
I have also decided to move my Virgin Amex card to British Airways Amex after discovering that BA gives a free partner ticket for every £10,000 spent. I have just lost out on 3 tickets with Virgin as they don’t do this.
I speak and present on sales and customer service and feel that virgin have really lost the plot. From my experiences this year, their service sucks (they have even outsourced their check in, how can you control customer service this way).
I personally feel that Virgin should go back to basics and take some lessons from Singapore airlines or even Air Asia.
Air Asia is a company that specialises in low cost flights around Asia, but combine that with great customer service. I always use them if I am flying short hops in Asia.
They are a company that I speak about in my presentations as an example of great value combined with great service. I was fortunate enough to meet their CEO, Tony Fernandez, at one of my talks in Malaysia recently and he is a super person with great stories about the company.
He decided to build his own airport a few miles from Kuala Lumpur International Airport and now has more than double the number of people going through his airport than KLIA.
How is it that some companies get it right when it comes to value and service and other lose the plot?
Virgin used to be a great airline and I was a loyal client.
From now on, not only am I going to avoid using Virgin Atlantic whenever I can, I will also be telling the story of my experiences to thousands of people around the world.
Please comment on your experience with Virgin Atlantic or any other good or bad experience you have had with an airline.
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Professional Speaking Bloopers by Frank Furness
I was booked to speak in South Africa and Mauritius and was asked to recommend two other speakers. I have great arrangements with many speakers where we refer each other and I organised the top speaker fromNew Zealand and a friend of mine from England. It was his first time in South Africa and he decided to take his wife with and turn it into a vacation. He also wanted to see a gold mine, so another speaker friend in South Africa arranged for him to do a talk to a group of gold mine managers followed by the tour.
The gold mine managers are hard men working underground every day in difficult conditions. I wasn’t there for the talk, but he told me that things seemed to be going really well.
The gold mine managers are hard men working underground every day in difficult conditions. I wasn’t there for the talk, but he told me that things seemed to be going really well.
Some way into the talk the miners held their lit lighters in the air. At the big pop concerts when things are going well the crowd hold up torches and lighters, so my friend thought that this was great. The more enthusiastic he became the more lighters would light up until every man in the room was holding up his lighter.
This seemed to be the highpoint of his career until someone quietly walked to him and handed him I note. It said ‘the boys want a smoke break’
Red faced, he quickly finished his talk. His big lesson here was to do more homework on the local habits and customs of the people of any new country he was speaking in.
Red faced, he quickly finished his talk. His big lesson here was to do more homework on the local habits and customs of the people of any new country he was speaking in.
For more information on Professional Speaking, take a look at Coaching for Speakers or contact Frank Furness at frank@frankfurness.com for dates of the next Speakers Bootcamp
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