CUSTOMER WOWS

Frahana Rashid and Jessica Hinckesmen are the EC’s “Queens of WOW”. As PIA BGSMs, they’re always on hand to deliver an amazing market nugget or two. But more than that, you can always count on Momma Fro and Jess to “wow”.

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Jess: “OMG Fro! You’ll never guess what happened to me on Saturday…!”

Fro: ‘Did one of your tyres explode again? Were you chased by a herd of cows on your way in? Or did you use nail glue to stick on your eyelashes...again??”

Jess: ‘Noooo! I was in Costa, just ordering my weekend special, you know, that Belgian Chocolate Creamy Cooler I absolutely love, and the lady behind me in the queue said she wanted to pay for it”

Fro: “You WHAT?”

Jess: “I know! She smiled and said it was her Random Act of Kindness for the day, handed over the cash, wished me a great day and asked me to do something kind for someone else. How cool is that?!’

It is pretty cool, right?

An unexpected and surprise gesture from a random person you’ve never met, that leaves you feeling special. And with a big grin on your face!

This got us thinking and talking about how kindness can be a secret weapon in your business.

Not with everything obviously, (remember, this is the Year of Clarity, not the Year of Randomness!) but those little random gestures and actions that will make someone feel special. Loved. Makes their day.

Love is in the AirSpainAir did it really well when they read out personalised letters from Santa to all the kids travelling at midnight one Christmas Eve. A priceless, lifetime memory for the child and the parent.

It didn’t stop there. The passengers got to the baggage carousel and found presents for each and every one of them. All beautifully wrapped up with bows and personalised with their names.

Over in Northants, local toy shop owner and all round nice guy, Paul Warner saw something on Facebook that brought out his kindness genes.

A very upset mum posted that her daughter’s birthday present had gone AWOL in the post, and spoiled her birthday. Paul, in a fit of kindness, tracked down the mum and sent her a special birthday present, with a lovely little note (handwritten, of course) saying ‘Sorry Royal Mail let you down, hopefully this will put a smile on your little girl’s face.’

You Can’t Buy That Kind of Publicity…

You really can’t buy that kind of positive publicity for your business. It’s the kind that gives you little happy goosebumps and makes you think all is right with the world when you hear about it.

What’s Your RAK for the Day?

“No act of kindness, no matter how small,

is ever wasted”

Aesop

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CUSTOMER WOWS

And the best thing is, once the act of kindness has been performed, it’s the recipient who’ll do the marketing for you. Bonus.

Social media and technology have a massive part to play in spreading stories of kindness - and make it all very easy and quick.

People love taking pictures of their gifts and surprises. They’ll share those pictures with their friends and social media followers, mentioning exactly who it was that made their day. Stories like this can take on a life of their own and go viral quickly.

Your random act could make you the next viral feel-good story everyone’s talking about.

This is great for you and your business and gives your fans another opportunity to share how awesome you are with their networks.

So, why and how can something so simple have so much impact?

• Because it’s unusual.• It’s unexpected.• It’s not the norm - and that’s what’ll make you and your business stand out from the crowd.

Keep an eye out for Kindness Opportunities!Don’t wait for Random Acts of Kindness Day (Yep, it is an actual day - Feb 17th to be exact!). Look out for opportunities to ‘be kind’ each and every day.

Make it a part of your company culture to be kind to each other, your prospects, your customers (not just the ones that spend the most money with you) your

previous customers, your office neighbours…even their pets.

Imagine receiving some unexpected doggy treats from someone just because you’d mentioned to them your dog was unwell?

Has someone posted on social media to say they’re having a bad day?

Would a ‘Just Because…’ box of chocolates or some flowers from you cheer them up?

You betcha it would. As humans, we all love to think that someone is thinking of us. You (and your business) can be that someone.

We’d love to see more businesses embrace Random Acts of Kindness in Business. It’s such a simple one to get started with too and the beauty is, we’re not talking about doing expensive, grand gestures.

The impact comes from the thinking behind the gesture.

So, here’s our really simple 3 step guide to how you can introduce RAKs in your business

1. Think about something you can do for someone to make them feel good.

2. Do it.3. Feel good about it

And, as our Random Act of Kindness for the day, here are some ideas you can implement in your business:

• A ‘Happy 3rd Thursday of the Month’ card with some jokes written on it

• Send vouchers for a treat because you know they’d appreciate the break

• A book you think they’d enjoy reading, with a little note.

• A bath bomb for someone who’s stressed about something.

• Leave a colleague a note to say thank you• Send them a quote that you think will motivate

or inspire them.

Fro: “So errm Jess, what did you do for your Random Act of Kindness then?”

Jess: “Funny you should ask Fro! There’s a lucky EC-er out there who may just well be getting a little something coming their way soon…:)”

“People will forget what you did, people will forget what you

said but they will always remember how you made them feel.”

Maya Angelou