LASTING IMPRESSIONS: Raiders of the “Lost Art”

Lasting Impressions with Sian Lindemann

Of Customer Service… and Lack of Personal Attention


Have you recently tried to contact a company to make an inquiry about your account ? Have you been placed on hold for an inordinate amount of time?

Have you been redirected to 14 other contact points only to discover that your particular question is not addressed in “the list?”

There is much to be said for the Art of Customer Service as an “engagement” consideration. While we are often excited and ready to help a new customer access our service base, how one handles the “problems” or the ongoing “client retention” is quite another topic.

I have had the pleasure to experience the best of service with current companies and I’ve encountered the opposite. And I believe, as perhaps we all do, that there needs to be some balance between the two.

In my personal experience, on the nature of the art business, there definitively needs to be considerable attention to customer satisfaction, with a long term exchange, not unlike a “personal” relationship one would have with a romantic partner.

Consideration and delicacy in an art acquisition, it is essential to deal directly with the same emotional triggers of “love,” and its vulnerabilities.

Customer service is by definition the relationship that ensues once the purchase has been made. The best example I’ve experienced over the last several years is the personal exchange I’ve had with the automobile company, Hyundai.

I purchased my car in Washington State and subsequently have required service is five different states since its acquisition: Washington, Arizona, (two locations in Arizona ) Wisconsin, and Colorado.

Bar none, the service in each location was above and beyond the best personal experience I have ever encountered. Not just about the car being serviced, but also the attention to my time, payment, and ongoing notifications and support. Hyundai, no matter the location, has been consistent throughout with the best and most generous support, going well above the call of duty in all of the locations. Their service would insure that I would buy from Hyundai again, and have actually looked into doing so.

Additionally, the follow up regarding the option for a secondary sale is spectacular.

They have my loyalty, and have for over nine years.

There is no need to define “bad” service as I’m sure we’ve all had an experience of it at some point in time. But what in particular would be an extra mile you could offer as a means and method to support your customer to consistently choose your company and service base first… should be positioned as the highest priority.

There is surely no need to go into those situations which have been less than exceptional as we all know what that feels like. So in keeping with the “romantic nature” of an art sale what could you do to make your client continue to feel exceptionally well cared for?

It can be as simple as the little gestures that you would naturally impart to a romantic partner that make one feel extremely special.

The List

1) Invite your clients to participate in something that is light, friendly and is not a constant request for a sale. ~ Hey what a concept ~ A friendly phone call!

2) An occasional card, birthday card, special event card as a wedding anniversary or anniversary of one’s last purchase, to discover how they are enjoying the original painting or other object d’art they have received.

3) A small gift sent directly to your client’s door. I rarely ever receive real mail other than bills, so how much fun would it be to receive the gift of a “hand painted” greeting card, or the like, to be used at the customer’s discretion, sent directly to the client’s home as a reminder of how much you appreciate their business.

4) An invitation to lunch, dinner or a wine tasting that has nothing to do with another art sale.

These may seem simple actions. Yet in such a harried and rushed environment in the business world, we seem to have lost these intrinsic niceties that make the other party feel great. The client may not take you up on your offer, but the thought and consideration to have extended the invitation will not go unnoticed.

In parting ~ I once ran the office ~ now many, many years ago ~ for a freight logistics company. It was a horrifically busy business, with many problems due to freight damage, late arrivals of major shipping and truck lines, and a plethora of problems. Yet with all of the problems, we implemented a variety of services that literally quadrupled the company’s business, and were specific to beefing up the “customer service.”

1) We implemented services that included that WE handled all the claims for freight damage incurred by the trucking lines. An occasional pizza and beer for the whole shipping and claims office assured our claims got first consideration for payment.

2) We called and chatted with the claims supervisors, truck drivers, and the end receiving offices for all companies involved.

3) We provided the best pricing we could find by building our access and database for private and company-based shipping services.

4) We provided solutions for consideration of repackaging product to minimize damage.

5) We had fun doing so!

These may seem simple solutions. But where art and beauty go together so too does a well timed delivery of a single flower delivered impeccably to the recipients door.

Take the time to treat your clients like royalty. and you will create a magnificent and spectacularly loyal fan base. Most importantly, in these times where the “personal” seems to have gone out the window with the wild wild west of the Internet, make sure that your communications are personal, beautifully executed and well constructed.

Wishing you continued success in your career !

Sian Lindemann
February 2010


For more information, please visit Sian's TNNW Bio.

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LASTING IMPRESSIONS: Raiders of the “Lost Art”

LASTING IMPRESSIONS: Barriers To Creative Expression

Lasting Impressions with Sian Lindemann

Letting “The Moment” Pass You By

Illumination

Tonight bears witness to the fact that there is a moment in one’s professional career where one says yes to all that is possible or says yes to the opposite where one continues to doubt their capability and craft.

And so it is this evening. In readying to draft this month’s article I made the calculated effort to approach my work in a uniquely different way. An intended interview with a writer whose work I admire and respect went sideways from minute “one.”

In light of the fact that I had to switch and change the content of my article for TNNW,
I had to adopt the literal and immediate requirement to access my creativity and to then switch-up and change, mid-stream, the expected content that was to be produced.

Interesting that the title of the initial article was to have been, “Creativity As A Way Of Life”…and so it is… my life, my creativity, and the ongoing recognition of its endless and unconstrained source, is again at my hand…the pen.

One can never run out of creativity.

Networking

In light of the fact that I’ve been effusing over the positive aspects of Social Media, and the need to document and fill a variety of platforms with written content that is considered “valuable,’ I have long ago removed the limitations on what I would say, how deeply I would dig to express my views, and trust that if I was as authentic as I could muster, there would be an audience to read, to be enraptured, and to potentially be moved by it.

And so it is…back to me…to share the power and the willingness to expose my soul to the public. As an artist, it is required, as an artist who is recognized, it is essential.

The networking has then become a bonus, if you will. Tagging articles, notes, and other creative content that has been designed and presented, has, in my experience been extremely well received. I have often been shocked at the passionate response to what I have written…

For writing, is, for me still, one of the most difficult art forms in which I immerse.

I will, nearly always, procrastinate until the very last moment, as I have done today. And the procrastination is not, in this moment, of my own creation. I had “handled” the exchange, had set up the interview, and was even enraptured in the content of the blog by which I had discovered this particular writer.

And here I am, again, crafting my own content to meet the deadline so as to post my article in a timely manner.

Yet, that which comes from an immediate need to speak about an AHA, is often the moment that is most compelling and engaging for those who are viewing the work, the art, the writing, the article, the form.

That AHA is the mysterious magic that IS “creativity.” Aligning with the source of oneself and knowing that it can be tapped, and expressed at any time, it has never failed me.

And from this feeling…a bit discombobulated, a lot disrupted, and slightly out of balance, then flows a quintessentially genuine topic, about which I am most impassioned, creativity, and my passion for the “creation” in all of its glorious forms.

Knowing the edge, if you will, a border between slightly buzzed, excited and agitated, then flows content that I actually enjoy, and feel excited to “share”.

I am feeling sorry for the writer who would not “bounce” with the interview. I am feeling saddened by her expression that was not sure she was ready to participate in the interview. I am even more amazed that she had captured me so vehemently by her writings, that I was actually motivated to ask her to participate in this interview…as I had so enjoyed her blog posts….and lastly I’m a bit angry that I wasted a half hour of my life discussing whether the timing was correct to share her works with this platform.

And finally, the best is realized, I am thrilled that I have a platform whereby I can share so much of what I feel about the genuine “treasure” it is to have the freedom to say exactly whatever I wish, as is the case right NOW.

The creative process, realized….I can’t wait to share this content with my friends, colleagues, followers and others. For the process itself is the quintessential directive behind the door, titled “networking.” Networking is relational, it is personal, and it is a natural expression following effusive and enthusiastic expression of that which is most important to you.

Creativity IS networking ~

Sian Lindemann
January 2010

For more information, please visit Sian's TNNW Bio.







Published by THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter. All rights reserved. Subscribe Free For Your TNNW Newsletter and THE BLUE MONDAY REPORT! - Click HERE.
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LASTING IMPRESSIONS: Barriers To Creative Expression

LASTING IMPRESSIONS: “Underneath Your Clothes... There’s an endless Story”

Lasting Impressions with Sian Lindemann

“Underneath Your Clothes... There’s an endless Story”
From the song ~ Shakira
Questions and Statements that cause one to Think


How many colors are there in a reflection?
~ Lucretia Torva

Underneath Your Clothes, There’s an endless Story” ~ Shakira

Hips Don’t Lie ~ Shakira

“When we KNOW that love matters more than anything and we know that nothing else really matters, we move into the state of surrender. Surrender does not diminish our power, it enhances it” ~ Unknown

I’ve been “thinking” a lot over the last several weeks, and it is the reason why I am amazingly LATE and have missed the deadline for my article for The National Networker, January 2010.

I suppose Adam will forgive me because I have delivered unto his publication an endless stream of timely articles for nearly three years... and, although this one is LATER than LATE, I simply could not come up with a title or content that was “in line” with this new thinking.

The new thinking has been percolating for some time and has not allowed for me to write the “status quo” kind of content I have provided before today.

Adam will be pleased, for two reasons

1) He allowed me to write for Arts and Entertainment because I know my business
2) He tolerated my writing for Arts and Entertainment for I am self - admitted “rotten” writer.

Now, it is intolerable, even for me, to write a crappy article just to get it in ON Time.
This is a good thing.

I have been demanding of my artists to provide and produce perfection, but have not been willing to hone my craft in order that I, too, provide an excellent end product. From this discovery, I am having a pivotal AHA, if you will.

And for this I am not placing myself out of the loop in a willingness to give you, our readers, a better product, no matter the discomfort it causes me.

The Turning Point
The turning point has been Social Media, which forces me to write daily, to write passionately and to write about those things that really matter to me. And today I am prompted to better the quality of my product to you…

I don’t know if Adam Kovitz will accept my article in this format, but what I do KNOW is that I can no longer provide a skimpy version of something, quickly penned, simply to meet the deadline for a publication that has asked from me, a product, delivered thus, in service to its deadline.

Both considerations warrant value.

Writing as I have been doing to maintain a number of blogs, and 3 Face Book profiles, have assisted me to become more clear. I would never go so far as to personally congratulate myself on the notion that I have become a better writer. What has occurred, however, is a consistent and formidable devotion to the passionate expression of my work.

I have fallen in love with my work… for now, a 30 year immersion into supporting, prompting, cultivating realizing the careers of artists in my care…I now have a deeper devotion to my own artistry…and I am in love with the power of “creation” once again.

I had it once, and thus, set it aside... round about back on 9/11/2001

I am back, and am more devoted than ever, not only to my own best discovery and creation, but to those whom I serve. And in this format, I serve the readers of The National Networker.

Working daily in Social Media has brought forth the realization, which has been supported by my fans and readers there, that I have the ability to write profoundly, to have an impact with the thoughts and ideas that I present, and to ultimately inspire those
Who are taking the time to read and possibly share my posts.

I am honored, truly... and surprised.
For... Humility has come with my surprise.

So it is at this time, once penned, that Adam will have the final decision on whether I continue to write for The National Networker, but in the meantime, I devote myself to providing the very best content I can possibly drum up…and express in writing.

I have been moved by the writing of others. I have been inspired by the writing of others, and I am most appreciative that if in any way, anything I write has an impact on my readers here, or on my own platforms, I have found a new way, a new art form, and a profoundly deepened expression of truths that are extracted from my core values.

HOW does this apply to Networking

The art of and the realization of “The Law of Attraction” is experienced today, January 15, 2010. For the first time in years, I can finally stop pushing the river to get people to pay attention to me shouting from the mountaintops. They are coming, joining, reading, and commenting of their own volition.

I am honored…and I am humbled in their so doing.

And it is up to ME and me alone to continue to provide better and better ways to hone a pathway that gives back that which I so deeply receive.

Appreciation... for inspired thought.

Think on this if you will... Does your art inspire? Does your work inspire? Do your actions make better the lives of those who surround you?

If not, and if not bettering the lives of those around you, are you truly giving the very essence of your soul each time you paint, write, sculpt or dance?

And If Not... Begin It NOW... In line with one of my most favorite quotes, “Boldness has genius... Begin it Now...” Goethe

Thank you Adam, and my greatest thanks to The National Networker for assisting me to actualize something new. The power to transform through yet another art form in the long list of actualized skills of Sian Lindemann ~ Artist

In this authenticity, I no longer need to “network” to drum up clients, fans, or support. They come... by their own volition, in free will, as if a moth to a flame... for where Light and passion are present, who can truly resist ?

That is the highest form of networking... natural, unencumbered, and authentic.

January 2010
Sian Lindemann

For more information, please visit Sian's TNNW Bio.






Published by THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter. All rights reserved. Subscribe Free For Your TNNW Newsletter and THE BLUE MONDAY REPORT! - Click HERE.
The National Networker Companies
Forward/Share This Article With Colleagues And Social Media:

LASTING IMPRESSIONS: “Underneath Your Clothes... There’s an endless Story”