Are they working for you?

"The only thing worse than training your staff and having them leave, is not training them and having them stay".

Check out these worrying staff sightings from around the UK. Ask yourself, 'Is this my staff?'

Worrying Employee Sighting #1

My daughter and I went through the McDonald's take-out window and I gave the girl a £5 note. Our total was £4.20, so I also handed her a Twenty pence piece She said, 'you gave me too much money.' I said, 'Yes I know, but that way you can just give me a pound back .'

She was puzzled and went to get the manager who asked me to repeat my request. I did so, and he handed me back the 20 pence and said 'We're sorry but they could not do that kind of thing.' The girl then proceeded to give me back 80 pence in change!

Do not confuse the staff at MacDonald's.

Worrying Employee Sighting #2

We had to have the garage door repaired. The GARADOR repairman told us that one of our problems was that we did not have a 'large' enough motor on the opener. I thought for a minute, and said that we had the largest one GARADOR made at that time, a 1/2 horsepower. He shook his head and said, 'Madam, you need a 1/4 horsepower.' I responded that 1/2 was larger than 1/4 and he said, 'NOOO, it's not. Four is larger than two. ' We haven't used Garador repair since.

Happened in Moor Park , Nr Watford UK

Worrying Employee Sighting #3

I live in a semi rural area. We recently had a new neighbour call the local town council office to request the removal of the "DEER CROSSING" sign on our road. She said the reason was: 'Too many deer are being hit by cars out here! I don't think this is a good place for them to be crossing anymore.'

Story from Potters Bar, Herts, UK

Worrying Employee Sighting #4

My daughter went to a local Kentucky Fried and ordered a taco. She asked the person behind the counter for 'minimal lettuce.' He said he was sorry, but they only had iceberg lettuce.

From South Oxhey . Herts. , UK...

Worrying Employee Sighting #5

I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an Irish airport employee asked, 'Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge"? To which I replied, 'If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?" He smiled knowingly and nodded, 'That's why we ask.'

Happened Luton Airport ... UK

Worrying Employee Sighting #6

The stoplight on the corner buzzes when it's safe to cross the street. I was crossing with an intellectually challenged co-worker of mine. She asked if I knew what the buzzer was for. I explained that it signals blind people when the light is red.Appalled, she responded, 'what on earth are blind people doing driving?!'

She is a Local County Councillor employee in Harrow, Middlesex, UK

Worrying Employee Sighting #7

When my husband and I arrived at Our Local Ford dealer to pick up our car, we were told the keys had been locked in it. We went to the service department and found a mechanic working feverishly to unlock the driver's side door. As I watched from the passenger side, I instinctively tried the door handle and discovered that it was unlocked. 'Hey,' I announced to the Fitter/Mechanic, 'its open!'His reply, 'I know. I have already done that side.'

This was at Ford dealership in St Albans, Hertfordshire UK.

Worrying Employee Sighting #8

This is a personal one that happened to the MD of Trainer Bubble. He was in a local Tesco store and after putting his items through the checkout, handed a fresh faced sales assistant a crisp £50. The sales assistant looked at him suspiciously and rubbed a pen over the £50 note.

To our MD's surprise the assistant then called over a manager and said, "It's not supposed to go that colour", to which our MD replied, "But you used a highlighter pen." The manager exchanged glances with our MD and headed off to more pressing issues.

Can you afford not to train your staff? Visit www.trainerbubble.com and view our fantastic, affordable training resources.

Worst Customer Compaints - Top Ten

All business owners have to deal with difficult customers at some point but how do your experiences compare with the 10 worst complaints one small company faced in 2009?

Clients are hard to win and even harder to keep, but there are a select few who can make life particularly difficult. Spare a thought then for online retailers Prezzybox.com, who last year had to deal with a client who wanted to return a used toilet brush – this being just one of the many zany gripes they received from clients last year.

Read on for the company's top 10 weird complaints of 2009:

• A gentleman from Leeds was keen to return the green Slanket (or blanket with sleeves) that he had purchased for his wife because her hair was ginger and it would have made her look like a Leprechaun.
  
• A toilet brush was sent back after being used to clean an especially dirty toilet.
  
• A Glaswegian male called Trading Standards after the bars of his football table went rusty. He had left it standing outside for two years without covering it.
  
• A Candy Bra was returned after already having been opened and nibbled.
  
• One unhappy customer sent back a '20 Questions’ gadget, which guesses the object you are thinking about. After answering correctly 37 times, it had failed to guess a disposable nappy during game 38.
  
• A 'Pets Eye View Camera' was returned after a female shopper indicated that the filming was not as 'exciting' as she had hoped.
  
• A 'Puppy Bumperstop Doorstop' was sent back by one client because, although it kept the door open, their pet hamster kept bumping into it when running around in his exercise ball.
  
• A lady returned her 'Henry Hoover Desk Tidy' because its smile was neither big nor happy enough to cheer her up in the office.
  
• A female customer sent back her 'Tipsy Feet' fold-up shoes because she was concerned about the fact that she continued to fall over when walking home after a night out with friends.
  
• A customer complained that the moods suggested by their 'Oggz Colour Changing Mood lights' did not reflect the atmosphere correctly.

Dealing with customer complaints can be one of the most challenging parts of customer service. Visit www.trainerbubble.com to view our training materials on customer service and dealing with customer complaints. By training your team in the art of dealing with customers, you will ensure a positive relationship with your customers and continued sales.

Anxiety at Work - A New Training Course

Just prior to Christmas, we added a brand new course to our website. It may well have slipped under your radar as, if you've been as busy as the Trainer Bubble team, there's not been a chance to gather breath! Therefore, we thought we'd take the opportunity to let you know all about it...

In this course we take a good look at anxiety. As we progress, the course clarifies what anxiety is, what it is caused by and why it is so important for us to know about it in the workplace.

Underpinning our course is a crucial message – making anxiety normal.

The course takes a non-clinical approach – there is no medical or scientific element to this course; it takes a common sense, practical and straightforward stand.

This course is suitable for anyone at work. It has been designed to assist us all with achieving an understanding of what anxiety is and how it might be handled whether -as a sufferer, or as the manager or colleague of a sufferer.

When you reach the end of this course your participants will:

· Know what anxiety is and what it isn’t
· Be able to discuss the impact of anxiety on colleagues, on productivity and working life
· Know the role of the manager, employer and colleague of an anxious person – and the role of the sufferer
· Be able to draw sensible comparisons between anxiety and physical illnesses

Produce a plan to define the action they will take to address the stigma attached to anxiety with a view to improving business performance.

The course was designed by one of our new designers, Sue Buck, and is an interesting addition to our portfolio. We look forward to more of Sue's work in the future as, if this course is anything to go by, we can expect great things. You can view this training course and many others at our website www.trainerbubble.com

Interview Skills - PRICE structure

Effective interviewing is a vital part of the selection process. This means that we need a consistent approach that is both professional and efficient.

One reason that consistency is important is that we must ensure that all candidates we interview are given a fair opportunity. We believe that one way to achieve consistency is to use a structured approach.

The approach we recommend is ethical and fair and you will be using it in a way designed to put interviewees at ease so that they feel confident to talk to you. It is also very effective at collecting quality information to help you make the best possible decision.

The structure we will be using is easily remembered using the mnemonic PRICE.

Prepare

The key to effective interviewing is good preparation and planning. Skip this stage or prepare inadequately and it is unlikely that the interview will be effective.

As a minimum you should be setting the criteria you expect successful candidates to meet and the questions you need to ask to help you assess whether they meet those criteria.

We also advocate preparing a question plan to use as the basis of questions you will ask all candidates.

Rapport

At the start of the interview the aim should be to establish the right level of rapport with candidates. It is important to remember that you are using the interview to obtain good quality information from candidates. Put them at ease and they are much more likely to talk freely.

Interview

Think of an interview as a structured conversation. The role of the interviewer is to give direction to that conversation by asking appropriate questions.

The aim should be for the candidate to do most of the talking and the interviewer to do most of the listening during this phase.

Close

Candidates must be given the opportunity to ask any questions of their own. Remember, they will also be using the interview to assess whether they want to work for you.

At the end of the interview the interviewer should explain the next steps in the selection process and when and how the candidate will be contacted.

Evaluate

After the interview the interviewer needs to evaluate the information collected against the criteria established during the preparation phase.

This article is a short excerpt from the Trainer Bubble training materials, Interview Skills developed by the author Karl Halliwell. Visit Trainer Bubble to purchase this great training resource today.

A short story for all business owners

A man owned a small farm in Hampshire. The Hampshire Department for Work and Pensions claimed he was not paying proper wages to his help and sent an agent out to interview him. "I need a list of your employees and how much you pay them," demanded the agent.

"Well," replied the farmer, "there's my farm hand who's been with me for 3 years. I pay him £400 a week plus free room and board. The cook has been here for 18 months, and I pay her £250 per week plus free room and board.

Then there's the half-wit who works about 18 hours every day and does about 90% of all the work around here. He makes about £100 per week, pays his own room and board, and I buy him a bottle of whisky every Saturday night. He also sleeps with my wife occasionally. "That's the guy I want to talk to...the half-wit," said the agent. "That would be me," replied the farmer

Influencing Skills - Social Proof

The principle of social proof states that one important method people use to decide what to believe or how to act in a situation is to look at what other people are believing or doing.

Our need to revert to this behaviour usually happens in two instances. These are:

• Similarity – people are more likely to follow the lead of others that are similar



• Uncertainty – when people are unsure and the situation is ambiguous they are more likely to follow actions of others to determine what is correct

Social proof is inherent in many aspects of our life and is certainly growing with the advent of the internet and other technical advances. The use of reviews by many websites, including Amazon is an example of social proof in action. More recently, Blogs have become a method of creating a following of like-minded people.

Social proof can be an extremely powerful tool in the marketing of a company’s products and services. After all, if your current customers (who happen to be a lot like me) are so happy with your products, then surely I will be too?

Social proof and it's application for influencing skills is discussed in some depth in our training materials,'The Power of Influence', which you can purchase from our website Trainer Bubble.

Strategies for Handling Aggressive Behaviour

There are times when we all run into aggressive behaviour in the workplace or indeed in any social situation. The following strategies may be useful in defusing aggressive behaviour during discussions:

Maintain self-control

It is vitally important to maintain your self-control and not to bite. The other person may try to pull you in and may well use personal abuse, vulgar or unpleasant language and threatening gestures.

Try to retain your ‘state of independence’ and not be drawn in. It may help you to think of it this way – if you become angry – who has won? Your negative response may be helping them to achieve what they set out to do.

Signal non-aggression

It is important to catch the person’s attention and give signals, which will calm and de-escalate the situation. The most important thing to signal here is non-aggression. Remember that the other person is in a very emotional state and therefore their ability to think rationally is diminished – thus the actual words you use are less important than the tone and body language you display.

Match energy levels

It is important to match the energy level of the person. If you are slow to respond, or respond too calmly, it can give the impression that you don’t care or aren’t really interested in the other person’s problem or issue. Matching energy does not mean that you should be aggressive back to that person – it means that you should quickly engage with them and demonstrate with your body language and tone that you are concerned and interested.

This article is a short excpert from the Training Course Materials, 'Building Relationships'. Visit Trainer Bubble today to find out more about this and other exciting training course materials.

Trainer Bubble has Changed!

You may have noticed the we have been a little quiet lately, but we've not just been out enjoying the UK summer! Our time has been spent updating the Trainer Bubble website in order to improve your user experience.

Although we felt it was time for some change, feedback from customers and our own discussions told us that we didn't really want to alter the look and feel of Trainer Bubble too much. However, we did want to make it work a little faster and to improve your general experience. Consequently, you will notice that we have added images to the product listings and also improved our search function. Our International customers will also note that there is an easy to use currency converter, which should make our prices much easier to review.

Most of the changes are in the background, but you should notice faster load times and a much better experience. Of course, we've kept all the great features, including a huge list of training materials and the free section. Visit us now to see for yourself at Trainer Bubble.

Honesty video - Great for Customer Care training

This video is great to use in training sessions where you want to demonstrate what is really going on during customer conversations...

Speeches and Presenting - Tips and Techniques

This article from Denise Winterman from the BBC caught our eye recently, and we thought we'd share it with you...

A brilliant speech can go down in history. But most of us write words the world will never listen to. Can speech-writing teach us skills for dealing with tricky situations in everyday life?

Pants. Just one of the reasons the US Embassy in Britain is currently advertising for a speech-writer. It says knowledge of the nuances between the Queen's English and American English is vital, for obvious reasons.

However speech-writing is about much more than trying to avoid red faces. As far back as the ancient Greeks, the power of carefully crafted words has been fully understood and expertly exploited.

But rather than being all about creative flair a good speech-writer uses a number of techniques to get a point across. And these verbal tools are not only useful at the lectern, anyone can use them in everyday situations, from handling a boisterous child to reasoning with a traffic warden.
This is because speech-writing is the language of persuasion. And the average day largely consists of trying to persuade people, says Dr Max Atkinson, a communications consultant and author of Speech-Making and Presentation Made Easy.

"The way words are put together makes all the difference," he says. "It's often thought that great speakers are blessed with a gift, but they all use the same techniques. What makes people stand out is how often they use them.

"These techniques are the building blocks of effective speech-writing and can be used in other areas of life. Some people use them without even knowing. They are usually the best speakers and the most persuasive people, but anyone can learn them."

Mantra

Study great speeches and you will soon see a formula, agrees Adrian Furnham, professor of psychology at University College London. While some are more complex, others are relatively simple.

What makes the techniques adaptable to everyday life is the fact that language is governed by rules - rules we all learn from the time we begin to peak.

"Even the smallest child is learning the rules of language, and language acquisition and so these techniques can be applied to them," says Dr Atkinson.

"Research has shown that you can get a different reaction from a child depending on how you speak to them. Like everyone else, they respond to the way something is said."

In a nutshell, a great speech is communication at its most effective, and we all want to communicate effectively in whatever situation we find ourselves in, says professional speech-writer Lawrence Bernstein.

"The rules and techniques of good communication work on all levels - if you're on a stage speaking to thousands of people, asking your boss for a pay rise, trying to buy a new house, or teaching a class of 10 year olds."

So what are the best techniques?

CONTRASTS

A tactic used by John F Kennedy and by Margaret Thatcher.

People are still quoting JFK's line: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." And Baroness Thatcher was at her most formidable when she famously told the 1980 Tory party conference: "You turn if you want to, the lady's not for turning."

"Using contrasts is a real winner," says Dr Atkinson. "Research shows 33% of the applause a good speech gets is when a contrast is used.

"This is because you are often using a negative and then a positive and that has impact. It makes your point bigger and better."

It's a technique that translates into everyday life, especially with children. While explaining they can't have one thing, it's good to point out what they can have instead. "No, you can't have a skateboard of your own, but you can have a go on your brother's."

THREE-PART LISTS

Three really is the magic number. "Education, education, education" - Tony Blair's 1997 election-winning mantra. Or it can be a list as simple as "here, there and everywhere".

It's a technique used by US President Barack Obama - he used 29 three-part lists in roughly 10 minutes during his victory speech on election night, says Dr Atkinson.

The theory behind the technique is that three is the first and earliest point at which a possible list of similar words can become unequivocal. No other word needs to be added to make it a list.

"It's about completeness. A third word can give confirmation and completes a point," says Dr Atkinson. "It applies in all walks of life. Church services and prayer books are full of three-part lists. Research has shown that people know a prayer is finished when it ends with them praying for three things. They know to say 'Amen' and don't have to be prompted."

Also, it is economical - a third word is the earliest point at which a possible connection, implied by the first two, is confirmed. If you carry on listing items, say speech-writing experts, you risk being criticised for "going on and on". It can be the same in life in general.

IMAGERY AND ANECDOTES

Be it "opening doors" or "breaking down barriers", paint a carefully constructed picture with your words.

"It's about taking people on a journey and making it memorable," says Prof Furnham. "Imagery and anecdotes are some of the best ways to do this and they can personalise things."
Again, it's President Obama who experts say is a master of this technique.

"He knows how to use imagery both to increase impact and to make his points. He paints an image but also evokes associations with great communicators of the past like Lincoln and King," says Dr Atkinson.

This technique works whether addressing a nation, or guests at a wedding, say experts.

BREAK THE RULES

A good speech-writer knows the rules to follow, and also how to break these to maximum effect. There is always room for the unexpected in a great speech, and in life, says Phil Collins, former speech-writer for Tony Blair.

If done well it can grab people's attention - and he should know. Mr Collins penned Mr Blair's joke about there being no danger of his wife "running off with the bloke next door".

It was one of the former prime minister's most unexpected and memorable lines, delivered in his last speech to a Labour conference in 2006. It was deftly done and showed a real understanding of Blair and Gordon Brown's prickly relationship.

"No one was expecting it, which is what made it so good and so memorable," he says. "Pitched right and delivered well, something unexpected will make people sit up and listen."