Posted by Jackie Ewing on August 28, 2009
Jackie's Poken
Just got introduced to this nifty little thing – my Poken. It contains my social media contact info – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn – with many more to choose from.
When I meet someone else with a Poken, we high four with their little hands and our information is automatically exchanged – how neat is that?!
You can collect up to 64 contacts at one time. Then just plug it into any computer with a USB port and internet access. The Poken will open a browser asking you to sign in to your account, it recognizes that you have pokened and uploads the social media info on the folks you just met. You can choose to save the data as vCards as well!
This little thing is HUGE in Asia already and growing wildly in Europe. I just HAD to get some!
Pokening in Miami Beach
Started “pokening” this week at the Florida Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Miami Beach.
Stay tuned for more updates on this nifty thing.
Email me now at jackie@jtewing.com if you want more immediate info or just plain want your own Poken!
Happy Pokening y’all!
Posted by Jackie Ewing on August 13, 2009
Those of us that hail from the other side of the “pond” often wonder how it is that although Americans speak
Do you speak English?
, we very often don’t understand what they are saying! I suppose the same could be said about Americans not understanding us Europeans either.
I’m from Ireland and I know my husband Jeff (who is American) has spent years deciphering what I am saying to mean entirely different things to what I am actually saying! We’ve had a lot of fun with our “misunderstandings” over the years.
In the vacation home rental industry, the one word that always causes pause is “villa”. To me, a villa is some grand structure with turrets, teeny windows and lots of airy rooms, overlooking a vineyard somewhere in France or Italy. To many others it is a Florida pool home. What does it mean to you? Or better yet, what does it mean to your clients?
When we are marketing our vacation rentals (or holiday villas as the case may be!) we have to remember that our clients may not understand our industry language and may be confused between the various terms that we use to describe our product. We need to find the language that helps us to connect with them.
Sidney Barrows in her book ‘Uncensored Sales Strategies‘ says;
“Customers need to hear or read words that resonate with them – words that make them feel you understand who they are, that you know what they need or want, and that lead them to believe you have or can do that which they are seeking.”
Author Sydney Barrows and Yours Truly, Jackie Ewing
you can connect with your customer at that level, it will be so much easier to make the sale. Knowing and using this language connection will help increase your conversions – turn phone call and email inquiries into reservations.
If we delve a little deeper into the specific words we use when dealing with our clients, we can identify some that will actually help us in that process of confirming the reservation or resolving an issue.
The following are also featured in Sidney Barrows’ book;
• Clients or people we serve, NOT customers
• Choose or take, NOT buy
• OK the paperwork, approve the (booking) form, NOT sign here
• More economical or better value, NOT cheaper
• Total amount or total investment, NOT total cost or total price
• Challenge or concern, NOT problem
Listen to what you or your staff are saying to your clients and how they are saying it; look at which words you are using in your brochures, sales letters, emails, web pages – it might be time to review and make some changes.
Think about how the words are perceived from your clients’ perspective, not yours.
Learn to speak the language that your clients’ best understand. It will result in better communication with them which builds relationships and ultimately will result in increased sales for your business.
Until next time,
Toodles, bye bye, see ya, ciao, later
Jackie
Posted by Jackie Ewing on August 10, 2009
Testing out another nifty gadget from our friends at FB!
Posted by Jackie Ewing on August 5, 2009
I had the pleasure of another power failure today – one of the hazards of living in Orlando! Anyway this time all my office equipment powered down and did NOT power back up like it usually does. After much rebooting, I did finally get it all back…except my Broadband router. I tried it in several different power outlets, but to no avail! Being the equipment non-techie that I am, I first called my IT provider to report my router being powerless. He asked the right questions of me so we knew the router was from the cable or phone company. Excellent customer service as always, that’s why I pay him more than the average – he is better (for me) than the average.
On to the next call – the cable company that provides my internet service. Several layers of automated voicemail lay the grounds for a build up of frustration. Hey, I can’t help it if their automated system can’t understand my Irish accent! Anywhoo, finally got to speak to some nice lady (not located in the US, but I cannot guess correctly where she was!) who was absolutely no help to me at all, except to get a case number from and then transfer me to tech support – which is where I thought I had already been.
Very nice chap had to break the bad news to me that No, the router was not part of their equipment so he could not assist me. But on a good note, the cable modem showed a nice healthy signal!
On to the phone company. Yes, I have VOIP service and no signal. This time I got a very helpful chap who asked a few questions and then agreed that the router was indeed dead because it did not power up. (It almost makes me afraid to wonder about the level of moron that these poor customer service folks have to deal with!) So, he took about 4 minutes to process a replacement router, free of charge, with free express shipping and to confirm that it would ship out to me bright and early tomorrow morning. Now THAT was customer service that I can live with. Yes, there are all kinds of VOIP phone services being offered today, but no matter what issue I call my phone company with, they solve it and don’t charge me anything for solving it. That is why I will not change my service to the other, cheaper, solutions. Again, I am willing to pay more to get better service.
Have you checked lately how your customer service people are servicing YOUR customers? Might be time to “secret shop” them and find out for sure!
Till next time,
Jackie
