Credit crunch what credit crunch? 
Cartoon courtesy of shorelines art Quintessentially is a private club that offers members access to thing as that are not generally available e.g. exclusive night clubs and tickets to the Oscars. Typical members are royalty, celebrities, sports personalities and bankers. Members pay between £750 to £2500 and £24,000 for elite membership. Chief operating officer Frank Rejwan said ‘It’s for people who enjoy life but are time poor'. Mr. Rejwan has noticed an increase in people prepared to pay the top price. ‘We haven’t changed the membership price for the past three years and don’t plan to for a while. In the past year the rate of growth of elites has tripled and that is the fastest growing membership’ he said. Source the Marketer Back to the top Chefs Brands Shop in any supermarket or high street store and you will find food or kitchen equipment endorsed by the celebrity chefs. These products are very popular and according to Mintel 38% of us have prepared a recipe from one of the celebrity chefs cookery books or TV shows. 34% of us have bought chef branded food and 10% of us have eaten in a chef owned restaurant. It is estimated that 14m consumers buy celebrity endorsed products. However 75% of 'modern mums' according to Mintel believe TV dishes are impossible to recreate at home and 66% of this group claim to feel inadequate when they have attempted celebrity chef recipes. Even some 'celebrity' chefs feel that not all of their associates are totally honest in allowing the public to believe the products they endorse they have developed themselves. Marco Pierre White endorses a range of soup for Morrison's. He said ' I'm not pretending I'm the creator of these soups. Anyone believing that I am is a fool. I cook Michelin starred food that's my talent'. TV chef Phil Vickery said 'I was cooking for 17 years before I appeared on television. When I write books, I fill them with dishes that I cook. Anything else is cheating.' He went on to say that several well-known chefs have no connection to what is written in cookery books or the recipes that make up their products. Phil Vickery spent nine months developing products for the 'Seriously Good Food Brand he endorses. source The Grocer Back to the top Betfair Even for a small business it can be difficult to sort out data and information about customers and their buying habits. The online betting company Betfair had the same problem. Their customers typically opened different accounts to bet on various sporting events. It became difficult for the company to tell if the people registering had registered before or if they were entirely new customers and the companies reputation was suffering. Not only did this situation make it difficult for Betfair to promote new betting opportunities they risked annoying and alienating customers by E mailing the same person two or three times per week with the same promotional message. To solve the situation Betfair employed a data specialist company. Betfair records were cross referenced electronically and duplicate records removed. The systems used by the data specialists splits customers into five or six segments associated with the type and range of betting they use. The data system also sets triggers when customers stop betting. The result for Betfair is a much more efficient system and improved customer service. In addition the new system allows them to target customers with specific products and sporting events. Source the Marketer Back to the Top How easy is it for you to buy fine quality wines from family run vineyards? You will not find the wines Andrassy's sell on supermarket shelves. Andrassy fine Wines are a family run business and they buy from family run wineries in France, Germany, Hungary, Spain, Portugal and New Zealand. www.andrassy.co.uk |
How to Survey your customers Every business needs the reassurance that their products and services are meeting customer’s expectations. Without questionnaires and surveys a business is reliant on reordering information or customers responding when they are happy or more usually unhappy with business products and services. Carefully worded questionnaires have the advantage of revealing problems before they develop into bigger issues and can guide a business to developing products and services to meet customers changing expectations. Survey your customers: 1. To find out what your customers think of your products and services 2. To find out what new products and services your customers would like 3. To find out how easy it was to order and buy from you What do you want to know from your customers? Plan questionnaires carefully so that they reveal worthwhile information. For example when introducing a new ordering system to find out your customers experience of using it. Discover customers views on changes are they more or less likely to visit the site again. Survey customers: To discover if they are happy with the products or services they bought from your business. 2. To discover if there are related products and services customers would like that your business can develop. 3. To discover customers experience of buying from your business What to ask? This is the most difficult part of the process. It is easy to produce a very simple questionnaire that reveals nothing. For example ‘Are you happy with the products you bought from us’ giving the option of a yes or no answer really tells you very little. Or ‘Did you find it easy to order from us?’ Structuring your questions so that they reveal relevant information while keeping them simple is a necessary balance. Keep questionnaires to one subject area. What form should your survey take? While it would be very helpful to ask detailed questions it is unlikely that you would get a response. The form a questionnaire takes to a large extent depends upon what you want to find out but in order to elicit a response limit the number of questions in the combination of tick boxes and questions that require a fuller response. What methods should you use to contact your customers? 1. Telephone 2. Mailing 3. Personal interview 4. E mail Consider adding incentives to encourage customers to respond to surveys e.g. gift vouchers or free gifts. The most effective way to get a response is by telephone survey, mailings and e mails tend to get ditched. Personal interviews can irritate customers in the time they take but have the potential to reveal more that any other form of survey. How often should you survey? Not too often is the easy answer. Many businesses send out questionnaires automatically following purchases. This restricts research to once in the life of a customer. So by all means survey your customers following their first purchase but survey them again following changes to business products or services or when you develop new products or services. Should it be anonymous? Make questionnaires anonymous so it is easier for customers who are not entirely happy with the service or the products they bought from you to respond. Back to the top Looking for a way to bring your team together? Looking to reward your staff? Opt for one of our unforgettable Ready Steady cook style team building days where you and your team will work together to learn new skills and discover how working together can produce surprising results. Harmony house Cookery School Ring 01904 720933 or 07889 808749 |
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and finally.............. You know how frustrating it is when you are out of the office and your mobile suddenly gives you a flat battery warning. This no longer has to be a problem. Noon bags have designed a solar energy collecting tote bag. Simply place the bag in your car or a train window facing the sun. Even on a cloudy day it will store enough energy so that you can charge your mobile from it. The bag comes in different designs and the company are now working on a bag that will store enough power to charge a lap top. | 
