Just Who Are Our Real Competitors? | A Q&A with Nigel Risner

Nigel Risner  is one of those larger-than-life characters who makes an impression wherever he goes. Fortunately for us, Nigel also happens to know when and how to motivate an audience - he's been on the speaking circuit for as long as any of us can remember.

In the past, you may have heard Nigel elaborate on his 'animal theory' where he organises delegates according to pone of four communication styles—lion, elephant, monkey and dolphin— which demonstrate how teams can benefit by utilising the different characteristics around them.

However, Nigel's decided he needs a 're-boot' and so came into Speakers Corner HQ to showcase his brand new presentation. We're leaving the animals behind for now, and instead we're focusing on the competition around us. Let's find out what it's all about.

Hi Nigel. When you came into meet us the first question you asked us was who were our competitors. We shouted a few names out and you said we were wrong! Why?

The real answer is everyone!

We need to start thinking that anyone that the customer/client has had phenomenal service from is our competitor, instead of thinking that the competition are your competitors. In the past we thought that all we have to do is to be a bit better than our competitors and that was called “good enough” - in today’s world "good enough" seldom is just that.

For example, if your customer receives excellent customer service from their mobile phone provider, but they then receive good customer service from your organisation, the customer will rate your service as less than satisfactory. Standards have been raised and businesses need to hit those heights 100% of the time.

Is this the reason why you’ve created a brand new presentation? To help all of us deliver exceptional customer service?

My new speech was created to expand from The IMPACT Code and Being an Effective Zoo Keeper. It’s a bit like an app software update...we need to refresh and update especially in this ever-changing world.

Customer service expert, Nigel Risner

But businesses will come across difficult customers. Does there come a time when we have to leave these customers behind for the benefit of the business?

We all have difficult customers but if we were to rephrase that to different customers it might help.

However, sometimes we need to remember that we teach people how to treat us. We only want to work with clients who trust us and we trust them.

When we discount our fees we can lose fee integrity. Personally speaking, we de-hire two clients every year that don’t match our values and our fun and creativity because what we want are partnerships rather than one-off transactions.

It takes a lot of courage to say no but in the end we win by working with people that value us.

So let’s move onto the million dollar question! How can brands deliver exceptional customer service?

For brands to deliver exceptional and impactful service they should really be thinking this isn’t exceptional, this is our norm. We treat our clients the way we would want to be treated but we also make sure that we treat them in the style that most suits them hence how we came up with the zoo keeping concept.

And finally, if there was one key takeaway or learning experience that you would want your audience to leave with, what would it be?

Our key takeaway stems from the quote “when all is said and done, much more is said than done.”

Everything we do, every touch point that our clients, bureaux, are involved with must make an IMPACT which is why Dame Anita Roddick’s quote is so apt “If you think you are too small to make an IMPACT, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room!”

If you follow the basic principles of our new speech you will not only get new clients but retain them for many years to come.

For further information call us on   or email  info@speakerscorner.co.uk .

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