Shopper Anonymous would like to share 12 ideas that will help see you through the festive season and prepare you for a fantastic 2015

These are our 12 days of Christmas….

Day 1 – Christmas Closure If you are closed over Christmas, make sure you have your Christmas hours clearly communicated. What happens to your customer if there is an emergency? Enable your voicemail. This will allow your customers to record their message which will then be emailed to you so you can listen to it and reply within a set timescale.

Day 2 - If you are Open over Christmas Spread the festive cheer by changing your on-hold music to one of three different Christmas music choices: 'Christmas songs', 'Stars Sing Christmas' or 'Traditional Christmas Carols'.

Day 3 – Enter into the Spirit – Working through Christmas is a great opportunity to deliver a more personal and cheerful experience – get the team to think through how this may be different. For example, phone messages, phone answering and email footers. Have mince pies and mulled wine at customer meetings.

Day 4 – A Little Reflection - If your business is quiet over Christmas, use the time to reflect on the past year. What did good and poor service look like in your business? Which team members were involved in both examples? What can you do to repeat more good experiences and to eliminate the poor ones in 2015?

Day 5 - A Little More Reflection - During the quieter time, think through your own personal service delivery and that of your individual team members over the past year. Develop your own plan and one for each team member to keep the focus on service and selling.

Day 6 – Getting Closer to Your Customer – This is an excellent time to plan for 2015. How will you move closer to your customers in 2015? Do you get enough feedback after a job is finished? How do you keep in touch with customers during their journey? How do you link this feedback back to your team? Take time to think it through and plan for next year.

Day 7 - Developing Your Team in 2015 – Allocate resources to team development. If your business is seasonal, plan training before that peak period to get the team really focused on their customers. Click here for more details…

Day 8 – Walk the Customer Journey – This is one of our favourites! When it’s quiet, take time to revisit the customer journey. Drive into your car park, walk into the business through the customer entrance, use the customer toilet, sit in reception and take some time to reflect on how it could be improved.

Day 9 - Going Forward – Look at your Customer Database - Categorise your customers into two groups based on spend or relationship and then develop a service strategy for each group. How are you keeping in touch? How are you receiving feedback? Nigel Botterill, a serial entrepreneur, states you should put your brand in front of your customer three times each month – how will you do this?

Day 10 – Develop your Top Ten – Which ten businesses would you like to begin engaging with next year, so they can become clients? Make this your Top Ten and focus all your efforts on the strategy for developing the relationship. Set timelines on your goals. For example, for the first company on the Top Ten list, your goal may be to meet them by the end of March.

Day 11 – Put up the Mirror - Great service starts at the top. So how do you personally deliver great service to your team and your customers? As we say at conferences, the fish smells from the head down. How are you going to change your behaviours to motivate your team to be the very best? It all starts with you!

Day 12 – Take some Time Off - Now you have eleven ideas to think about, you may have no spare time over the festive season! Well, give yourself a little time to reflect and relax. Every business leader requires PEACE - a bit of time to turn everything off and relax.