If your firm is like many, you’re now managing a bunch of survivors - the lucky ones who didn’t get downsized. Chances are good this means you’re presiding over a heightened level of costly employee dysfunction, even if you don’t see it yet.
Layoffs affect survivors in various ways. Here’s what you can do to limit the damage. Click Here to [Read More] »
Too many people have a great idea but don’t make anything out of it.
Some are afraid of failure, some are afraid of the pressures of success, and some just want to tell people about their ideas, just for the sake of doing so. Here is a general step-by-step guide to taking an idea and turning it into a business.
Once you get an Idea… Click Here to [Read More] »
Harvard Business School Professor Rohit Deshpande discusses one airline that’s not just surviving the current downturn, but thriving: Singapore Airlines. Why is Singapore offering complimentary espresso on flights when others are charging for luggage and taking away in-flight movies? How has the company avoided the doom and gloom that so many other carriers face?
By staying out of what Deshpande says is a loser’s game of competing for customers on price, of treating them like commodities.
Singapore Airlines is a throwback, by design, to the days when flying was glamorous and customer service was king. They’ve created a luxury travel experience and retained the glamour of long-distance travel. It’s almost retro. Of course customers have to pay more for this experience, but most don’t mind. Flying has become so stressful, they’re willing to pay a little more for better experience.
Singapore Airlines brings its customer service focus to all cabins, even if it’s making its money off of the front of the plane. “They give more frills to economy than any airline,” he says. “They were the first in-seat TVs and offered more channels than any airline. They have, even in economy, more flight attendants per passenger.”
Singapore also goes against conventional wisdom by using the downturn as a time to make capital investments, not shun them. They buy airplanes at the downturn time as the supplier don’t have the buyer and they are willing to give it in discounted rate.
Singapore Airlines main strategy is to focus on customer satisfaction and not on price, they build customer loyalty and a solid business. They have always maintained the level of quality at all times and at areas. Where as other airlines they are focus on price and commodities and they fail at the time on downturn.
Singapore Airlines has evolved into one of the most respected travel brands around the world. They have one of the world’s youngest fleet in the air, a network spanning five continents, and the Singapore Girl as the symbol of quality customer care and service. Customers, investors, partners, and staff — everyone experience quality excellence. And so, in their lounges, their conferences, working relationships, and in the smallest details of flight, Singapore Airlines rise to each occasion and deliver the Singapore Airlines experience.
This proves that Customers buy solutions not the product. They buy the satisfaction and customer are loyal till you make them satisfied.
Listen to the IdeaCast for more from Professor Deshpande on Singapore Airlines’ winning strategy.
Source: Harvard Business Conversation Starter | Singapore Airlines
- Sakin
Kevin Boss writes about his learning experience as a web design freelance. He highlights the 5 mistakes that made him a better freelancer. I went through it and found that we also have similar problem in our company. I guess most of us have the similar problems and I hope this article will bring in some insight and help towards solving your problems while you are doing business or freelancing.
Here goes the complete article written by Kevin Boss:
5 Mistakes That Made Me A Better Freelancer
A few years ago I started offering web design services to those in need of a web site. Ever since, It’s been a constant learning experience. When I advanced from website coding to directly interacting with clients, I was taking a pretty big step. It was hard enough trying to understand this crazy markup language, and now I had to learn how to interact with clients? Sheesh. Thanks to trial and error, I’ve come to understand a few things about establishing and maintaining the best possible relationship with my clients.
My clients shared the same technical background: they had no idea how the Internet works, how websites work and what exactly it is I did. As far as they were concerned I waved my magical wand and poof, a site is born. Wouldn’t that be nice? Unfortunately that isn’t how it’s done (well for me at least). Because of my inexperience, I set myself up for a few nasty headaches. But I also learned a lot of valuable lessons.
The Never-Ending Design
“Hi Kevin, you know i see where that link is and well, can you make it blue instead of black?” Sounds innocent enough right? When you have a backseat designer who is continually revising the design, it can be a little frustrating. Especially when they liked your markups, then had a change of heart after you already coded everything. Getting calls a dozen times a day is also pretty tiring. You’d think your client would have the common sense to not call this often. Think again. When you don’t set guidelines and establish a clear work-flow, you’re just asking for trouble. Have your client sign off on the final mockup before moving to the next step. Define how you want to go back and forth regarding revisions.
The Midnight Caller
“How’s development going on the site? What? Of course I’m awake why wouldn’t I be? You were sleeping?” We don’t all keep the same schedule, and this is especially true if you’re dealing with someone that lives in another part of the world. Then again even when my clients lived 10 minutes away I was still getting calls at the strangest hours. Your client is paying you to get something done, and if you don’t state otherwise, expect them to need to talk to you at the most inconvenient times. If you give out your contact info, make sure you explicitly state how to contact you, and what time(s) are acceptable.
The Chatty Sally
“Hi Kevin, how are you doing? How’s the weather? Are you wearing shorts? I called to ask a quick question about the site and I’ll keep you on the phone for a while talking about general stuff not relating to the project at all” Having a good relationship with your client is important, but remember to keep it professional. Your working on their website, not becoming their new best friend. Socializing with a client isn’t bad, but it can become an issue if you don’t set clear ground rules. When you’re socializing, you’re either not working or at the least, distracted. If you have a time-sensitive project this can become a major issue. Make sure you clearly establish the purpose of your communications, and keep them on track. I’m not suggesting that clients and developers should avoid a social and professional relationship. I’m saying if you don’t set some ground rules it can get out of hand.
The Project that Doesn’t End
“The site looks great, but can you add an image gallery to it? I forgot that I wanted that before” Clients are notorious for wanting more work done than originally anticipated. I can’t remember a single project where the client didn’t want something new added as the project came to a conclusion. It’s natural - if something rattles around in your brain it’ll eventually spit out some new ideas. Since I agreed to make the client a website, I guess I agreed to add whatever they wanted right? Wrong. I failed to outline a specific scope, and as a result got stuck in a loop of additional work. Clearly define the scope of the project and what requirements need to be satisfied to complete the project. If they want to add more work after the fact, simply tell them that it’s not in the contract. Offer them the option of revising the project with added labor and a later completion date.
Hosting Woes
“Help the site is down!!! You suck at hosting!!!” I used to host my clients and charge them a few bucks for it. I figured hey why drive business elsewhere when I can offer a complete solution? Well that worked out well until my host started flaking. The site would be down once every week or so, and the people who I hosted weren’t too happy with it. I couldn’t blame them. I was angry at my host too. I’d constantly get calls about the site being down, call my host, and either get a machine or no answer at all. Now the obvious problem here is that my host sucked, but for a few dollars a month I was also being held responsible for something not in my control. I decided the profit wasn’t worth my reputation. I did explain that the hosting problems were beyond my control, but that didn’t make their site magically work. If you host your clients make sure you’re ready to accept the responsibility when something goes wrong. I do think hosts, for the most part, are more reliable now than 3 years ago. They are also cheaper now too. I refer my clients to the web host I use. I think it’s mutually beneficial that my clients deal with their host directly.
I never completed a project for a client without doing everything I could to completely satisfy them, but I sure did have some tough situations. Most of my work comes from word of mouth, so I place a lot of value on each individual client I have. These aren’t all my adverse situations, but they are my most memorable. Do you have any of your own? I’d love to read about them.
Oh, and not every single client can be satisfied - some people are just unhappy. There are other ways of dealing with them
Thanks Kavin for sharing your experience and suggesting the solutions.
Enjoy reading
- Sakin
No. There are no causes of poverty. It is the rest state, that which happens when you don’t do anything. If you want to experience poverty, just do nothing and it will come. To ask what causes poverty is like asking what causes cold in the universe; it is the absence of energy. Similarly poverty is the absence of wealth. For most of humanity’s existence on this planet, poverty has been the norm, the natural condition. People hunted to survive or lived by subsistence farming, and they were poor. In some parts of the world (like remote villages in Nepal and other underdeveloped countries) this is still the case.
The unusual condition is wealth. This is what changes things. We should ask, “What are the causes of wealth” and try to recreate and reproduce them. When you ask the wrong question, “What causes poverty,” you end up with wrong answers. People fall into the trap of thinking that the wealth of some causes the poverty in others; as if there were fixed amounts of wealth in the world and that rich people had seized too large a share of it.
In fact wealth is created, and it is only during the last 250 years or so that we have found how to do this on a grand scale. Wealth is created by production and enterprise, by the specialization of labour, and most of all it is created by exchange. Instead of trying to take wealth away from rich people and redistribute it, we should be seeking to implement the conditions in which as many people as possible can join in the wealth-creating process for themselves.
Poor countries will not become wealthier because we give them some of our riches. They will climb out of poverty the same way we did, by producing and selling goods and services and by creating wealth in the process.
Edited by Sakin and Written by Dr Madsen Pirie