Did you get yours?

Just a wee post to let all our business joes know that we have now sent out their customer response postcards. If you haven't received yours yet please let us know at http://www.iusejoe.com.

.... a postcard from Joe

Just to let you know that we have taken delivery of our customer feedback postcards. The idea is that after completing a piece of work for a client business joes can leave a postcard thanking the customer for their business and encouraging them to visit http://www.iusejoe.com to leave a rating and a comment to help other consumers who are looking for a quality job. The layout of the cards was designed by Karen at Connal Mac Design. Connal Mac provide a rapid and customer focused service and you can find them on IUJ or at http://www.connalmac.com.
We'll be distributing the postcards to all business joes over the next few days.

Dic, dic-tation……

….. how many buses are in the station? Actually, quite a lot! There’s a bus depot just across the road from Nick French’s Data Supplies & Accessories (http://www.dictationsupplies.com/) office in Cumbernauld.
I met Nick yesterday. His firm has been in the business of supplying quality dictation equipment to companies throughout the UK since 1982. Data Supplies works closely with all of their clients, many of whom have been with them from the start, so they understand just how this sort of equipment is actually used in all different sorts of industries and organisations. Data Supplies also works very closely with the equipment manufacturers and have regular training sessions to learn the latest products. All this allows Nick’s company to provide a solution tailored to the client’s particular needs and also to support them with customised training if necessary. And, if a client does run into difficulties, they can fall back upon Data Supplies’ support desk which is available 24 hours a day. Talking to Nick it was quite evident the importance that he places upon understanding and then satisfying customer needs and also the value to his business of word of mouth recommendations – which is why Nick can appreciate the potential of http://www.iusejoe.com/ to help reach new customers and further grow his business.

Dial I for internet

Just a quick post while I remember about a fairly recent article in the Economist magazine (http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11413206&fsrc=RSS) about traditional yellow pages type operations. Apparently, fewer and fewer people are using them as more and more people turn to the internet to find the services they need. To quote, "people now want more than a book full of advertisers—they want word of mouth and a sense of community". And that, is exactly what http://www.iusejoe.com/ is designed to provide!

A "live wire" from Stirlingshire, Scotland

This evening I thought I'd give new Business Joe, Annette Kerr, a ring just to welcome her to http://www.iusejoe.com. Annette is bursting with ideas about web marketing. A mother of young twin girls she's also an experienced party planner and has found time, amongst other things, to start http://www.partyplanconsultant.co.uk. This is a resource site for party plan consultants, direct selling distributors and work-at-home mums. On Annette's site you will find resources to help grow your home based business, links to other useful sites and a forum to share and discuss ideas with fellow consultants, distributors and marketers. I'm sure with Annette's enthusiasm and commitment to helping others her business will flourish and I'm sure Joe will help her on her way. Good luck Annette and welcome to IUJ!

Meeting local businesses in Marlow

Things behind the scenes at www.iusejoe.com are as busy as ever so please accept my apologises for not posting to the blog for a wee while. Last week I was out and about meeting local businesses at a BRX business breakfast networking meeting in Marlow, Buckinghamshire. I attended the meeting as a guest having been invited by a local video production firm www.takeonetv.com. Whilst it is early days in terms of meeting new people and making new contacts, the general feedback I received from a number of people at the meeting was that the concept of I Use Joe - that your customers are your greatest sales force and that word of mouth marketing can help power a business - struck a chord. Hopefully in the next few weeks and months ahead we'll build on that message and demonstrate that managing your customer feedback on I Use Joe helps build your business. Off to bed now as I have another breakfast meeting tomorrow morning in Gerrard's Cross. More on that one in another post.

At Fairways BNI chapter (Scotland)

Early Friday mornings are the usual time for our weekly BNI business networking meetings at Dullatur Golf Club in Cumbernauld, just north of Glasgow. The meetings are an opportunity for like-minded business people to get together and do some business. BNI's philosophy is "givers gain". It's about building trust and sound business relationships over time rather than a fast sprint for a quick win. Iain Whyte is BNI's Executive Director for Scotland South and East and he's also our current chapter director. Which is good for our group as he's passionate about the BNI concept and very convincing on that theme. In fact Iain is a renowned inspirational speaker and has recently set up as http://www.bigmantalking.com/. Iain is also a big hearted sort of guy and last month he and BNI co-director, Colin Read, rode across America in kilts (2,913 miles in 10 days!), on Harley Davidsons to raise money for the http://www.moebiusresearchtrust.org/. On the way they had some great experiences and encountered a lot of kindness and support. You can follow their exploits on their blog at http://kiltsacrossamerica.co.uk/.
Ian is a firm believer in the power of business networking and sees http://www.iusejoe.com/ as a valuable tool to extend his networking reach.