In retrospect, I guess it paid off a few years later when I was one of the few who scraped through Advanced Higher Art back in 2002 – much to EVERYONE’s surprise (including my own). There were some real talented artists in the room too. As it turns out that that was the first year of our new curriculum, and we later discovered that every teacher in the area had misinterpreted the course wrong! If the teacher doesn’t understand it, how on earth will the student? Okay I digress. The point that I am trying to make is that sometimes it’s good to experiment outside the ridged lines of other people’s perceptions and ideas, and express ourselves by painting something new. Something original.

What if the idea you have works? What if moving location turns out to be the best move for you and the company you go on to work for? Can you imagine being Walt Disney and told that you were a rubbish illustrator, and then years later laughed out of the bank for his proposal to build Disney World.

I have never been much of a colour within the lines kind of gal, creatively speaking of course, and to be truthful, I’m glad. Going against the grain is never easy, when you are a creative in an industrial society. However, as Henry Ford one said, ‘if you always do, what you’ve always done, you’ll always get, what you’ve always got.’

Someone, somewhere has to be willing to step out and take a calculated risk.

I have always felt that more companies should appreciate, and treasure the entrepreneurial spirit within their team, rather than squash it. Thankfully this is beginning to change. I believe that instead of being threatened by people who are better than we are in a particular area, we must learn to collaborate and make way so that collectively we can achieve success. However, if you find yourself torn between the voices that tell us to stay sit down, stay in line, then I challenge you to be true to your art and have ago.

Happy bank holiday weekend folks! Thank you to all who subscribe to this blog. I consider it an honour.

This was my final piece for advanced higher art. I’ve framed this and placed it on my desk to remind myself that sometimes we just have to take a risk, and paint.

I could go on, and probably will in posts to come; however, today I thought I’d like this cool little fella share a word that if you press play will surely speak to you. Now it’s great to be inspired and encouraged, but go do something with it.

‘Create something that will make the world awesome!’ Are you doing so already? Well what can you change, what can you do to make your team, company, life, relationship better? Remember what is great today, will be good tomorrow if you let things go and don’t continue to invest in staying fresh.

#kidpresident

It’s easy to overwhelm ourselves with what we want out of life if you are someone with big dreams, but start by choosing to take one thing and work to see that accomplished. I suggest we make that one thing big, and then work it back into steps. Look at what you need to do to get there. Every destination requires some level of steps to get there.

Think about it… to gain access to a flat on the fifth floor, you are required to climb a minium of five floors to get there, and depending on the structure of the building you either need to take five set of stairs, or sometimes 10, or sometimes more.

Ask yourself these few questions to help you achieve your goal:

1. Where am I?

2. Where do I want to be?

3. What steps are required to get there?

Choose do so one thing today, but be careful… do NOT mistake activity for productivity, and always check your progress.

Before publishing this post, I swayed in the direction I would take this post’

1. From the frustrated shopper who had just experienced another disappointing service from retailer, River Island.

2. Taking the objective point of few, sympathizing with retailers who, perhaps have been under the same economy pressure and doing the best they can to keep their stores afloat.

I have to say after two painful experiences with one retailer I’m more swayed to the first option because regardless to the pressure these stores may be facing, we ‘the UK consumer’ have been subject to the provision of bad customer service way longer than the 2008 recession.

There is no excuse for the way some of the nations biggest retailers have treated many of their customers, advertising half truths, using loopholes and all kinds of trickery just to gain cash from the average shopper, without so much as a ‘thank you for choosing to shop with us.’

According to a survey from Clear Returns, 67% of surveyed respondents have returned items online, and over 40% say they have returned several items. The post, which you can read here goes on to suggest that a large portion of consumers are committing fraud and retailers are doing themselves no favours, by giving consumers discounted items and placing tags on the inside of garments.

Whilst I appreciate there may be a fair amount of this behavior going on, and their best intentions are to address this area. I think it would be naive of us to think that all consumers are committing fraud are to blame for the growth in returns made.

The 67% of folks who have returned items, did they admit to committing fraud? Or where they simply within their rights of the Sale of Goods Act?

In less than one month, I have been in two River Island stores, once to try to replace a damaged top (that I absolutely loved and found by accident, when out shopping with a friend) which was sadly damaged under the armpit after the first light wash – after following the instructions on the garment itself.

My second trip was yesterday, with a friend who like many UK citizens was reluctant to return his worn hoodie that he bought less than two weeks ago and had already started to bobble on the arm after two wears. In this particular case, my friend had looked at the label inside to discover the material was no made of cotton, but a cheaper material which became apparent in a matter of days.

On both occasions, we were met by reluctant and rude members of store management after the counter staff flew like the wind to find them before they even looked at the receipt and goods for return. There is certainly a pattern happening in River Island – And perhaps the retailer are receiving a higher return rate that usual, however, this doesn’t omit them to treat the consumer guilty before charged.

In my own experience, the girl flew to get the manager before I could so much as explain my reason, other than to ask me a yes or no question. Have you worn this out? In my mind I hadn’t worn this on a night out, no. It was for work use. In a split second, the girl was off and there was no way of knowing what she had said to the manager because it was out of sight, but I knew it wasn’t right when he came flying towards me a few minutes later. The angry store manager proceeded to, no word of a lie, shout rather loudly in front of the whole store, calling me a liar and telling me that ‘this top had been worn on a night out’. Again, I bought the top for work, not clubbing; And I couldn’t even tell you the last time I went clubbing. I work night and day. Cheeky monkey!!

If I wasn’t stunned speechless by this manager’s abuse I would have explained as I have in this article. Instead, I found myself forced to defend myself blind to whatever information he was given as if being questioned by police. Screaming inside; ‘I’ll gladly take a lie detector test!’

Needless to say the top I originally hoped to replace, was returned as a ‘goodwill’ gesture after his ten minute rant of insult. Later to find that I too was well within my consumer rights, and River Islands returns policy. Might I also remind us I was looking to replace the top, not return it.

The same happened to my friend when he reluctantly returned his hoodie yesterday, disappointed by the poor quality of his product from a store he thought he could trust. This time the manager was a woman and after the same 10 minute break to whisper in front of the consumer came back with the lame excuse, ‘what’s wrong with it? It is just the kind of material.’ After a few huffs and puffs, I watched on as she gave exactly the same spiel as the Glasgow manager, ‘Ok, well I’ll return it as a goodwill gesture this time, but if it happens again I won’t.’

Are you now recording each customer now? I wondered. No need for a police force when the managers of River Island are quite happy to do their job for them.

What kind of excuse is, ‘it’s just the material’ for rejecting the consumer’s right to ‘reject’ an item that is not of satisfactory quality under the Sale of Goods Act?

Is this low quality the kind of quality we can expect from River Island now? Personally I’d rather pay ten times as much for my clothes and shop somewhere were the consumer is not treated like a criminal.

At the end of the day, retailers have a business to run and yes they shouldn’t be taken advantage of by the consumer. Certainly not. However; this coin flips two ways, and they also need to learn to appreciate the consumers who go into their store and choose to spend with them – especially in today’s economy.

I must also say that many stores, including Next, Boots and several other high-street retailers have continued to improve in this area of service, (based on my own experience) which Mary Portas helped highlight to the UK consumer over a year ago with her documentary ‘Secret Shopper.’

Never the less, it seems there are some stores are either getting worse, or have a long way to go.

Do you have a good, or bad customer service story that you would like to add? I’d love to hear your thoughts and finding on this subject below.

That is what a Follow, or like button is; An invitation sent out on behalf of the page owner to the consumer, to connect.

With connection, comes responsibility – Like in any relationship. However, today I just want to leave you with one thought that its an honour when you have people following you on Facebook, Twitter and so fourth. In the same way it’s an honour when a customer decides to walk into your shop, and buy from you.

Our attitude (that we hold) towards customers, or followers (online or offline) will determine the altitude of our business.

Like any relationship, our response and actions within certain situations can have a positive, or negative effect. In world of social media this does not change; excluding the level of exposure, of course.

As scary, and as dangerous as this may seem too many, we must not lose our nerve and shy away from fear of exposure.

We should not worry about gaining a negative response from a comment, post, or plug made (within reason). Instead, I would suggest it is far more important to understand, know and respond well in these events. Always make sure you that when you do respond, respond in a manner that is appropriate, firm and professional.

The power of sharing is much more than simply the share of information. It has the potential to go the extra mile when building relationships; to share experiences both bad, and good. Building something of greater strength, and value – a friend for life.

I wonder how many British businesses in total have truly grasped this concept of making their consumer feel right at home? After all without the consumer, there is no business. It’s not enough to set up shop, and demand money from your customers anymore. For too long chain stores have got away with pocketing our hard-earned cash without so much of a smile, or a thank you for your custom in return – and what’s worse is that for a long time, we, the British public put up with it!

…It’s worthwhile stating that when I say, at home, I mean at home in your shop, website, or office. The line between virtual, and physical presence has become a blur over the years, and what you put on the front-page of your website matters just as much what you put in the display of your shop window.

How are we making our customers feel at home? Technology, and the way we interact online has changed our culture in such a big way that we cannot afford to bombard our websites with forced speak, technical information, and confuse our customers with false advertising.

The way we communicate with our customers is a vital as communicating with your friend, or spouse. If we get things wrong, then we should be man enough to step up to the mark, and be honest enough to fix our mistakes.

Where more and more chains are folding on the high street, this is a perfect opportunity for smaller businesses to rise up to the challenge and really go the extra mile for the consumer. Not only will you build brand awareness, but you will build a growing customer retention, just by making them feel right at home.

Here are a few suggestions that will help us stay in business.

1. Say “Hello” with a smile – Whether in person, or via a 30 second video clip. Showing our white pearly teeth is a great way to let customers know that you are a business that values their custom.

2. Be clear always – Businesses that are built on this principle will stand the test of time. Transparency is key to the success of your tomorrow.

3. Be reliable –  We must say what we do, and do what we say. It’s as simple as that. With the shifting posts of government illustrating a perfect example that people lose faith in something that cuts deep corners, and doesn’t deliver. With lack of care and attention, consumers lose interest, and businesses fail.

The great thing about all three is that they can be applied across the board, from social media, to the shop floor. This is a friendly house keeping post for all business, and marketing departments.

If you would like help with developing a social strategy for your business, assistance in training, blogging, or help transforming your brand communications, then look no further. Get in touch with a freelance social savvy copywriter, right here, or leave your thoughts below.

Tasty looking, right? Well, if you like biting in to freeze dried maltersar like sweets, then yes. I however; was less impressed. The whole purpose of me buying these rainbow looking treats, spun out of my friend’s doggy bag, which she transported home from a very special wedding, with a very special chef on hand to whip up some French macaroons.

Now I could be way off here, but I’m told the chef was very particular to introduce them as’French macaroons’, which are no ordinary macaroon; and certainly after sampling both, I would have to agree.

Given the influx in information, and choice out there, how good is your product or service? Would you fall under the average macaroon, or ‘the french macaroon’ category.

I have asked myself the same question. What is so different about The Social Exchange Blog to the other 174 million blogs out there? In this instance the answer has to be, me! Not because I wish to puff myself up, but because I am the sole author of this blog and I am unique in every way; just as you are. Without conflicting today’s post can I encourage you not to become a carbon copy. It is good to be influenced by those further down the track, and to choose those influences wisely; but there is no one else that can write like you, talk like you, or think like you. Remember this when you come to sell your product, or service. We don’t need everyone to buy into our product. At least not at the expense of changing everything about who we are, and what we stand for?

Sounds like some kind of rebel message, right? Not so. I’ll leave you with these burning questions:

What’s the french on your macaroon? Are you delivering what you have always intended? How good are your macaroons, actually?

However: sharing is so much more than a retweet, or passing on information of value to someone else. Sharing has far more power, and yet in a world that says we understand the value of social media, many of us just don’t.

When we embrace the idea of sharing and all that that implies, and we count the cost, we will find that sharing doesn’t come cheap. To the outside world it may seem like we are throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars/pounds down the drain, but I am 100% convinced that the company who chooses to participate in the act of sharing will reap a bountiful harvest in the months, and years to come.

Sharing is caring, and today Starbucks UK have opened themselves up to our social world, providing a personalised Starbucks experience that puts the value back on the customer, rather than the product.

How did they do this? Two ways:
1. Listening to the customer
For years now I have listened to the complaints of coffee drinkers who loved the brand, but felt their coffee was too weak in comparison to the independent barista.

2. They did something about it
OK it took some time, but given the sharp shifts into a digital driven world, some would say their timing is perfect. On the day of introducing more coffee in each drink, (which was today) they took their brand to a whole new level. Unlimited free tall lattes for all until noon may seem like a mindless campaign, but in actual fact they have revolutionised the coffee shop experience. Taking it one step further, they didn’t just improve their product, the became friends, introduced themselves and engaged in a relationship with everyone who participated in today’s campaign. They got personal.

What Starbucks have done is drive an online media campaign, off-line. They have speculated to accumulate, understanding that the ROI of this campaign many not be seen in today’s profits, but spread across a longer period of time.

What’s the take-away lesson here?

Build relationship first, and brand loyalty will come second. No matter how big you grow in business, never get complacent to change.

This is both a lesson, and an illustration on where business is going in 2012 and beyond. Watching this video left me with rather large smile across my face, and a refreshing sigh of relief that someone is catching on to the customer matters truth that many brands still seem to think is a myth.  When you watch this clip you get a real sense of the Starbucks message. People see through fake campaigns, it’s not enough just to say you do something, people must experience it to believe, and to keep coming back.

If you want to make your business successful in 2012, make it personal. Re-engineered tweets just won’t do. People want to feel special, and accepted by their brands in the same way they seek from relationships with their friends, partners or family.

From gadgets, to social media, and everything in between make sure you make it personal.

If you like many struggle to manage your social media, or blogging for business, then why not call in the armed forces for help!

With experience in SEO Copywriting, blogging, social media training and consultancy I have strategized,  managed and participated in multiple projects social media/SEO projects from vast number of industries. If you would like my help on any of the services above, or simply have a question you would like to ask, then please find me on Twitter @leemac85