BNI Blog

Twenty-two unclaimed BNI Christchurch Christmas hampers were donated to families at the Christchurch Neonatal Unit just before Christmas.

BNI Canterbury Regional Director, Rob Bakker, says that two of the hampers went to staff and 20 to long term patients/families at the unit.

“One couple we spoke to had been there for 12 weeks and were expecting to stay another 6 weeks before their baby could be discharged. Needless to say the hampers were very gratefully received,” said Rob.

A recent ‘thank you’ letter to BNI from Neonatal Nurse Manager Christchurch Women’s Hospital, Debbie O’Donoghue, said the hampers were beautifully packaged and the delight of the staff and parents as they revealed their contents was obvious.

“For the parents it can be a very stressful time and this kindness alleviated some of their anxiety.

“I am very proud of the team in the Neonatal unit, and I particularly appreciate when such standards of professionalism and dedication is recognised by other people. Hospitals are not immune from the busyness and pressures of Christmas, and therefore, BNI’s thoughtfulness was most appreciated.

“Wishing you and the team at BNI a happy, successful and enjoyable year in 2012.”

Pictured BNI Directors Sam Williamson (far left) and Rob Bakker (far right) with one of the families at the Neonatal unit.

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No matter who you talk to out there it appears that many businesses are still finding the going tough. Having to work that much harder to secure clients and, then, to keep them on board.

With this in mind I find my recent experiences communicating with businesses, somewhat confusing.

Let’s start at the beginning.

I have an opinion that I should not have to chase someone to give them my business.

Everyone out there has some sort of competition and I would have thought, working hard to stand above that competition, was a priority.
Once I have made initial enquiries with a business, I may make contact one more time and then I will leave them alone.

Usually, and I say usually unless there is a reasonable explanation for the lack of contact, I will not consider them again. If communicating with you is a challenge in the beginning then you can pretty much guarantee that is the way it will be in any future relationship. I have better things to do with my time than chase people to give them my business.

Yet recently I have been dumbfounded by the lack of responses I have experienced from a myriad of businesses. So here are some things to think about with the communications within your business – both external and internal.

1. Firstly, make sure your communication procedures are robust within your business. There needs to be clarity around who is responsible for what, and what happens if plan A cannot be executed. For example, if you have a website that seeks enquiries, make sure there is someone who is responsible to follow those enquiries up in a timely manner. I recently spoke to someone who had sent two enquiries through websites and 3 weeks later, had not had a response! Why have a website to initiate enquiries in the first place? Needless to say they went elsewhere.
2. Have clear policy around response time. How long would you expect emails to be sitting in the inbox unanswered? How long would you expect the phone to ring before it was answered? How long should a message be left on your system without being responded to? Once you are clear on policies then you can design appropriate procedures.
3. Make sure your enquirers are clear on what is to happen. If you clear your phone messages at the end of the day, then say this on your message and ask that they leave a clear number where they can be contacted at this time. If you prefer to be contacted by email or text or cell phone, make sure they know this. I remember a conversation with someone I had been attempting to make contact with so reverted to email. His response was that he had been away and didn’t do emails anyway! Why then have an email address on your business cards?
4. Always remember the under promise and over deliver theory. If you are going to tell me how long it is going to take you to do something, ie: quote on a job, design a business card, allow time for the worst case scenario. If this initial part of the relationship fails you have potentially lost my trust.
5. Speaking of trust – never underestimate the currency of trust. Doing anything that could damage trust is long lasting and often publicised.
6. Communicate, communicate, communicate! If you cannot come and quote on my job for three weeks, tell me that. I then have a choice what I do. If I really want you I will wait, as long as I know the true story. If you are having trouble paying accounts then communicate. I often hear from business owners that they would rather someone was honest and paid bills off, than ignore the situation hoping it will go away.
7. Develop your people. Your staff are your greatest asset yet so often are neglected. Listen to them, acknowledge them, show them that they are valued and offer programmes to develop them as people. We so often spend money on telling people to smile when they answer the phone without developing them to the point where they would not consider any other way.
8. Understand that everything you do communicates something. What are you communicating to me? What are your staff communicating to me? What are your business premises communicating to me?

Business is never guaranteed so make sure your communication within and outside your business is never anything but excellent.

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The BNI NZ Support office will be closed from 21 December to 9 January. From the team at BNI Support, we wish you a very Merry Christmas, and a prosperous New Year. 

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As a Director looking after several chapters, I have observed and thought a lot about what makes a strong chapter. There are certainly consistencies with my strongest chapters and it is a formula that works. So the following are my observations from the chapters where members love going and get a consistent return on their investment.

A strong chapter:

• Does not focus on numbers. The strongest chapters are not necessarily the biggest. (They are not the smallest either I may add.)  It sounds odd, however numbers come through the strength. When a chapter focuses on numbers alone it can lose sight of the currency of BNI – trust. When this happens the membership committee become less than discretionary about who they allow to join, putting everyone at risk. I always say, grow strong not fast. Always remember that the reputation and the quality of your least strong member can impact on the reputation of all of you.
• Everyone is involved – from the meeting to the out-of-meeting activity. A strong chapter has 100% commitment from all members. They believe in BNI and they believe in the Givers Gain philosophy. My ‘weaker chapters’ tolerate low performance and it ultimately becomes their undoing.
• They promote training and insist on training before they do a 10 minute. This is not just about the 10 minute – it is about getting members who have a high level of understanding of BNI. Until you attend training you really don’t fully get it. I think chapters who allow members to not attend training put themselves at high risk. It is irresponsible of a leadership team to allow this. They let all their members down. Come to think of it, a strong chapter has all members attending training at least annually. I am really impressed by the numbers of members I see at training more than once now. They know that it is a great tool in getting the most out of BNI. Strong chapters have a culture of education.
• The meetings are run professionally, with fun injected. Fun is really important and so is professionalism. From a President standing up to run the meeting (a President that runs a meeting sitting gives off a ‘I can’t be bothered’ attitude. Doesn’t inspire me) through to the prevention of reference to personal stuff, is important in professionalism. Members can feel safe to do something fun and different in chapters where this balance is reached.
• They enlist the support of the director. We do not know everything however with experience and the backing of BNI support we can often find powerful solutions. We are there to support you and when we comment on something that concerns us it is because it concerns us – not because we think you are wrong or doing a bad job. We have seen a lot and tend to be clear on what works and what just doesn’t.  I am very open about my belief in all members getting the most they can out of BNI – I am passionate about it.
• They deal with attendance – I won’t harp on about this however it is consistent in strong chapters. Absences are just not tolerated.
• They have a great venue. It is not an easy task, however work with your venue. It is an important relationship and anyone who has attempted to find a venue knows of it’s challenges.

Remember it takes all members to create this culture. BNI works – that I do know. The stronger the chapter, the greater the return for everyone involved. It is a set of systems that are there to support you – why would you decide you know better.

Good luck with strengthening your chapters.

Niki Gunning
Regional Director – Lower North Island

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BNI New Zealand and its directors have been flooded with heartfelt and personal ‘thank yous’ from our members in Christchurch. Here is a sample of emails and we will continue to add more as we get permission from the writers to do so…

I just thought I would send a SPECIAL thank you to you all.

I was a recipient of “your wonderful box of goodies” yesterday morning, at the BNI Big Breakfast here in Christchurch.

It was indeed a room full of tears (good ones). Sam our Regional director found it hard to get the words out to say thank you, with the lump in his throat with all the emotion. We, all being tough business people tried to pull back the tears, but really it was just such a wonderful thing for you all to do, that we indeed let the tears flow Thanks for making our day/year! Graham and the BNI team did you all proud!

I am a truly inspired with BNI. Myself and my business has been a member for 8-9 years myself, and to know how much we really have an amazing business community out there is so overwhelming!

I thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Phillippa Jacobs

What can I say!  I am so humbled by what happened this morning and really not sure what to say other than “thank you”.

It really does make you proud to be a kiwi in times like this when you see such huge expressions of giving from just normal people like ourselves.  It brings another lump in my throat and tear in my eye each time I think about it.

Thanks heaps for your input Rob, you and Sam do an amazing job for us all.

Lorena Hopkins

Please accept my congratulations and heartfelt thanks for all you, and others in BNI, did towards the Big Breakfast this morning, which can only be described as an outstanding success.

It was an occasion and experience that I will always remember and treasure.  The kindness and generosity of BNI in NZ was stunning, and very, very moving – you weren’t the only guy with watery eyes, Sam!

We were all blown away!  If you ever needed to see the value of BNI, or need motivating, this morning was inspirational.

Thanks also for your excellent leadership and contribution to BNI.

See you at BNI!

Martin

What a faaaaaaaaaaaaaantastic surprise, I think everyone was blown away with what we experienced this morning.

A huge’ shout out’ must go to all of the chapters around NZ who got behind the initiative.

Bob Parker was inspirational, he has a true gift.

BNI is a wonderful organisation and it is great to be one of the founding members of BNI in Christchurch.

You have got a great man in Sam, he epitomises what every BNI member should strive to be like.

Thanks to everyone involved you certainly put a smile on everyones faces this morning and at the same time a few tears to the eyes.

All the very best for the festive season.

Mark Pfeifer

An open letter to all at BNI

There are no words in the English language adequate enough to express the feelings from this morning. Two words “Thank you” do not seem sufficient to express the gratitude for the effort and love that you have all sent us.

The breakfast today was in itself an amazing event, and it was great to mingle with those of other chapters and discuss the who’s whys and when’s of the last 12 months.

Then came your video, an emotional roller coaster ride, that had me and many others in the hall reaching surreptitiously for eye dabbing equipment. No of course it wasn’t tears, accountants don’t cry it was………..

Whilst in Pahia recently I met an Australian couple who had flown into Christchurch, hired a car and drove into town to the information centre. All the way down Memorial Avenue they kept thinking “hasn’t everyone done well to get back to normal – you would never know there had been an earthquake” until they arrived at the roadblocks and army tanks in the centre of town.

It sometimes feels that the world has stood still for the last 12 months. Dozens of containers two and three high are positioned on the main road to protect it from falling rocks. Abandoned houses, with broken walls still with furniture visible, remain untouched.

In my street, there is still the rubble from collapsed houses, and the road still blocked by boulders so that a 3 k round trip is needed to get off the hill. Potholes, sink holes suddenly appear. Water leaks spring up at random times from underground pipes that have suddenly decided that they have had enough.

Just occasionally we despair about when something may happen.  Sure it only lasts a moment, then the Kiwi spirit kicks in, and “she’ll be right” takes over. There is always someone worse off than you, we know that, and yet at times you wish someone would notice.

And someone did notice – you did.

I am humbled and I feel very privileged to belong to such an awesome group as BNI – to everyone of you, in creating the idea, in making videos, of writing personal notes, in packing boxes…

The only words that I have, “thank you”, are far too inadequate to express my appreciation, and undoubtedly all of those present today.

To all of you I wish the most joyous Christmas ever, my joy started this morning and may 2012 provide all that you have dreamed of.

Russell
Emissaries Christchurch

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