UFindUs continue to go from strength to strength

I can help feeling more than just a little bit pleased with how the hard work of not only people like Mark Nichols, Stuart Forrest and James Wright, and myself, but also all our support staff has  played its part in really making a hugely tangible difference to how the UFindUs brand is perceived.

12 months ago, despite having phenomenal success from the point of view of customer volumes, page views and rankings we were missing something. As a business we simply lacked customer service skills. In the short space of time since then we have achieved so much in respect of giving UFindUs a “customer friendly voice”.

It is of course no good being all talk and no action, our services have altered as well to the point where we are reaching great levels of customer compliments rather than complaints. To me what is even more important is that the recognition isn’t for the work that UFindUs, Customer Street etc have done, it is actually coming in for the individuals who deal with our customers.

An example of which has been taken from an email sent by the team leader of our Customer Support department.“This customer wrote a letter of complaint to Stuart Forrest threatening possible legal action. I called the customer to discuss the issues that had been raised in the letter. The customer told me to completely disregard his letter and that Barry (our support agent) couldn’t have been any more helpful. He said anything they previously thought of the company they don’t think any longer and apologised for sending the letter!”.

Well done to Barry and all his colleagues who I know are really going to extra mille in pursuit of excellence in customer service.

UFindUs – There when you need us most

The recent, and indeed ongoing, bad weather has resulted in an increase in searches on all of our directories and none more so than UFindUs. It goes to prove just how ingrained the internet is becoming in our daily lives. Even 12 months ago there wouldn’t have been the same level of enquiries. Its encouraging to know that whilst our directories, including More UK , are proving ever more popular the real “result” of all this is the fact that the SME’s we promote on there are really feeling the benefits.  

A reminder of what some parts of the country are coping with is below, you will have to excuse the fact that it is an American newscast but it doesnt diminish the fact that you never know just how bad things will get.

 

UFindUs training branches out

When the UFindUs brand was joined by the recently formed Customer Street directories, Smile Local and More UK the training department undertook a major oppertation in rollingout a brand new product that has already made serious impact in the online directory market.

You can follow just how training is improtant to our business  at our training blog, www.customerstreettraining.wordpress.com where James Wright, one of the training managers will undertake to disect the ins’ and outs of training inthe 21st century.

James will also be looking to share with you some of his thoughts on how he rolls out his training on product knowledge accross the brands and the difference that he sees in our new intake as they progress from “newbie” to fully fledged sales person.

The official blog of Customer Street Support

The Customer Street support team deal with all manner of technical support issues raised across all the products offered under the Customer Street banner.

The blog I mentioned a few days ago is now up and running which will over time provide a comprehensive reference facility for customers of Smile Local, UFindUs, More UK and any of the 130+ trade portals that we have been developing over the last 2 years.

All our support team will be feeding common and not so common issues through to 3 of their colleagues who will then co-ordinate the postings on the new blog site.

If you have any issues that they could help with but are happy to have them resolved via the blog then please let them know, the same goes for making comments on the solutions that they post on there.

We value the feedback we get from our customers, and, as a direct response to the things that we have been told we have made a variety of improvements to the way we run our business to make it more customer freindlty than ever  before. 

Customer Street Support Blog Arriving Soon

The end of last week was a little more hectic than usual with preparations to get the Customer Street support blog (just to name one) in place I am hoping that tomorrow we will be able to bring you our first offering. The great thing is that this will enable a dialogue with customers, if they so wish, over real issues that affect them.

It doesn’t matter how trivial you feel your comments may seem in response to the subjects that we cover, your input is very welcome, after all it is a two way street and we expect that there may be common subjects crop where we can learn and adapt our service to suit the needs of our customers.

Graham Armstrong

Communication is the secret to good service

As part of the ever changing face of the internet UFindUs has been joined by sister directories MoreUK.com and Smilelocal.com as well as some 130 or so trade directories. These are all brought together under the Customer Street banner to form a truly formidable internet presence which few can match.

I have often said that we are constantly looking at ways of letting our customers know about what we are doing and perhaps more importantly looking at getting your feedback so that we can continue to improve our world class product.

As part of this drive we will be introducing new channels which will make it easier for you to contact us as well as enabling you to get up to date and relevant information on how to you’re your website work to your advantage, internet trends and general support queries which can affect your account. Over the coming days and weeks I will be telling you of the new links as they come online.

The best thing is that this is a brilliant opportunity for our customers to continue to make a difference helping us mould our business to meet your needs.

Graham Armstrong  - Customer Street

In the pursuit of responsible blogging

Are we nation of complainers? I wrote on a similar topic only a short while ago but now find myself drawn back here again. I think that popular culture makes us more inclined to have a whinge and a moan about things than perhaps our parents would have done a few decades ago. Maybe if you were a parent a few decades ago you would kindly let me know if I am right on this point. I of course, despite the grey hairs that are starting to appear, am far too young to cast my mind back to the 60’s or 70’s with any great meaning.

If you wanted to complain a few years ago you picked up the phone or dusted off the Basildon Bond note pad and put pen to paper. Maybe if the culprit was close to hand you would go in and ask to see the manager to express your concerns face to face.

Just as customer services have altered over the intervening years so has the methods we use to make a stand against “injustice”. People can now, as is often he case, hide behind a pseudonym and make their proclamation to the world, or at least the world that is connected to the other end of a phone line. In these instances it is mainly impossible to identify who they are, almost as if they don’t want to be identified so that these often embellished stories can never be substantiated or sorted out. These postings are more often than not made by people who don’t actually tell the business involved of their “plight” but opt for the easy route of complaining in public, not only is it now easy to post on the internet but it is easy never to actually deal with the issue head on. This isn’t to say that everyone does this of course, they don’t.

Taking a cold hard look at things it’s also apparent that some people use this new found public voice to make a statement when the object of their frustration just doesn’t give in to the pressure brought to bear. The consumer must realise that they aren’t always right and the perception that a business is big enough to stand a small loss, for instance because they changed their mind a few months down the line, doesn’t hold water. Businesses are just that, a business, they are not a charity and just as a business has an obligation to fulfil its customers expectations, so the customer has an obligation to fulfil their side of the deal as well. Good businesses will accept when there is an issue and deal with it, making any just complaint on the internet superfluous.

I am human, I have a life outside of my job at UFindUs, I am a consumer as well. The occasional sigh will escape my lips as I read what has been put on display for all to see, these sighs are mainly because the customer hasn’t accepted the situation for what it is or just doesn’t really have a full understanding of what they have entered into. Occasionally however it is because they are quite right and our system in some way has let them down.

Either way they take work to try to sort things out and clarify exactly what’s what. There is no doubt that blogging can get the consumer results, but before you next put fingers to keypad to compose your thoughts please just stop, pause for thought, and then try to work out if there is not a more effective way of getting your message across and dealt with. If you are a UFindUs customer then you can call our support line on 0845 0135 105 where we have a great team who are able to deal with any issues or queries that you want to raise.

Graham Armstrong – UFindUs Ltd

Spreading the word by blogging

If you want to know more about the thoughts and processes that are involved in training the staff here at UFindUs then why not click on our training blog which is a personal view of how things are by James Wright.

Graham Armstrong – UFindUs

A full house – UFindUs sites take up the whole first page on Google

From time to time I will blow our trumpet about the great rankings that our own sites and those of our customers enjoy. The Rapidsites that we provide for our customers achieve fantastic results because of their search engine friendly layout and content that we have worked hard at over the years to achieve.

They may sometimes be treated like the “Cinderella” of websites, berated at every opportunity because of first impressions, but it doesn’t matter how many flash banners (they may look nice but search engines don’t like them) you cover an ugly sister in the real issue is that the beauty is always there but not always appreciated.

Why not type into Google, “general builder Stevenage”. Let the result speak for themselves. Today (and I can only speak of the moment) each of the 10 results on the front page are either sites or directories that we have put there. In fact the two top listings on the next page are ours as well.

These results are by no means unique, they help reinforce that the full range of services we offer are not only great value for money but are probably more likely to get you results that the majority of other sites claiming to provide a similar service.

Graham Armstrong – UFindUs

Above and beyond the call of duty – a tale of staff attitude and the customer experience

Anyone that has stumbled across my previous blogs will know that I am in the process if moving. My estate agent who were excellent when I bought thought them two and a half years ago have let me down. 2 weeks plus for the board to arrive, inaccurate details which took three attempts to get right and no viewings for the first two weeks. In fact little visible sign that they are trying very hard at all. I just hope that when I used to sell houses I was never that complacent, the market is changing and houses no longer sell themselves, an agent has to work hard to get results.

However, on Tuesday the first viewer round made an offer within 15 mins of walking in through the front door, a bit of negotiating later and we are sorted, deal done subject to survey and contract.

We are now looking for somewhere to buy and I am bitterly disappointed with how estate agency has altered in the years since I did it. All but two agents covering two major towns are open on a Sunday. Worse still they are fully booked up for Saturday viewings a week in advance, and even worse, estate agents generally seem to employ staff that have forgotten what customer service is about. I am seriously faced with taking a day off work in order to look round houses when THEY decide they can find time to show me around. “I’m sorry Mr Armstrong our last viewing is 5pm”, “I’m sorry Mr Armstrong we cant do any more viewings on Saturday as our viewer has to finish at 1pm  and I’m the only person in the office”. If you are prone to depression then my recommendation is don’t sell your house, use the money you would spend on moving on a holiday, HD TV or anything else that is likely to help you relax and unwind.

But what’s this……..can I really believe this is true? Farrell Heyworth seem to be taking a different approach. This week they are advertising that Monday to Friday their viewing hotline is available from 8am to 8pm, and they are open on a both Saturday and Sunday. They text potential properties of interest to me regularly and one negotiator in the Morecambe office has gone the extra mile. When I explained I couldn’t view either during a weekday or last Saturday she offered to meet me at 6.15pm to show me round a property occupied by an elderly lady. She isn’t responsible for viewings but appreciated my plight and responded. She won’t get paid for it, I know that much, and I don’t think she is on commission, but she wants to help. Not only this but she always calls when she says she will and has even offered to do the same again over the weekend for me after she closes the office on Saturday.

Now that is service. From what I have seen I like to think that our guys working here at UFindUs would, and,  are doing the same thing. Who would have thought it that an estate agent would be leading the way in customer service? All I have to say is well done Farrell Heyworth for nurturing the right approach in your staff and an even bigger well done to the lady in the Morecambe office who has done what very few others would have done.

Graham Armstrong – UFindUs Ltd