As I’m sure you have gathered, following the marketing meeting there are a good few changes to our marketing strategy and, in turn, some of the collateral we use to market ourselves. One of the big focuses will be the website. I have put together a plan of action with Emma on what we are going to focus on to try and refresh everything relatively quickly.
We are currently working on a home page redesign, removing old obsolete content from the menu bar and a brand new case study page as a starting point. As and when these pages are updated I will be sending out the links to everyone and more than happy to receive feedback. We will get there with it!
We are back at Formula Student this year. PTC have renewed their sponsorship of the event and have asked us to support them on the stall. This will no doubt require a couple of you to come along as well and support from a technical perspective; I will be speaking with those of you as soon as possible. For those of you unaware of Formula Student, please read the following article on the Institute of Mechanical Engineers website, mentioning us and our partnership with Concurrent at the event. https://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/ptc-return-as-sponsor-of-formula-student-uk-competition
I have just got off a call with Ultra PCS which was a follow up to the training recently delivered on-site there by Matt.
Glenn Campbell (their Engineering Manager, not the country singer 😊) was very complimentary of Matt’s delivery, style and subject knowledge. He thought the content was pitched at exactly the right level and the feedback from the team there is the course was the best of its kind they had ever attended.
Good to receive this kind of feedback from a new customer, there are now multiple opportunities open to us to sell more training and services off the back of this - Mr. Bancroft take a bow. Well done.
I felt the marketing strategy meeting was a great insight in the business initiatives and what we are looking to achieve and how we are going to get there. There was a lot of talk around customer care and customer satisfaction which plays a massive part in my job role as I mentioned in last months newsletter. Once the 6 months surveys are up and running (they are currently being renewed by Karen Morton and Julian for sign off) we will be able to get some really good, honest feedback from customers allowing us an insight into what we can improve on – and what we can have a good boast about. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into this and providing some metrics to the company on the feedback I receive – keep your eyes peeled!
I have been given a platform in my position to progress and improve my skill set outside of renewals and have begun to add upsell elements into my calls to see if there are any additional training requirements or interest in the UCC’s (currently Loyalty). I have had some success with this and a few opportunities created which I’m working through with some of the sales team. It’s a really exciting opportunity to progress what I am doing to the next level and could provide some additional revenue to the company. Thank you for everyone who has helped me get up and running with this and helped get some deals over the line.
Myself and Emily are also working with Julian to create an Academic Success Programme to take to market. We are trying to get something that encompasses all the elements on offer to Academic entities and include some marketing, events planning and customer success element within to differentiate ourselves from competition. There will be further details coming up on the website, but I know there are a couple of Universities we are in conversation with at the moment who are interested in learning more.
I think it’s great to be able to have these opportunities to develop and do more with your role as you progress. It’s great to be a part of developing the customer success programme and excited to be a part of it coming to life.
As you know, in the Services team, one of our jobs is to deliver projects. Generally, it can be said that most of our projects are delivered well. We have the skills and expertise to give the customer what we said we would, the customer is generally satisfied, we get our invoices paid and we get our wages. Outcome- All is good.
In one simple sentence, write down how you would define what a project is to that “person in the elevator”. I will give you a definition and the coffee answer at the end of this section.
So why does this work?
While I don’t have anything exciting to report in work life or doing worthy causes, I do try and encourage people to be out and about in their lunch break.
How about on your lunch break, between 12 – 1, you put down that mouse, get off your chair and come and join me on the Wellness walk, weather permitting. There are 3 routes to choose from.
Perhaps people are shy to join or aren’t interested? However, I have put some info together and would welcome anybody to join:
It would be great to have some new people join me not to mention the benefits of getting away from those screens for a while!
Concurrent will once again be sponsoring Shelfield United U16’s as they enter into the 2018/19 season this coming September. The business has been supporting the team since the 2016/17 season and proved a lucky talisman as the lads won the league title last May. The season just finished saw them compete well at a much higher level with a solid fourth place finish in the league.
Shelfield is one of the poorer areas of Walsall and the club, staffed entirely by volunteers, provides a safe environment for over 200 boys and girls to play and enjoy their football. The club was founded in 1994 and is an FA Charter Standard club affiliated to Staffordshire FA. The club has also recently achieved CASC (Community Amateur Sports Club) status which is classifies them as a charity. Some of the children don’t have the best home lives and donations and sponsorship from businesses like ours are critical to provide somewhere they can have fun with their friends and learn the importance of working as a team.
On behalf of the children, players and everyone associated with this great club I would like to pass on mine and their thanks to Owen and Concurrent for committing further support to such a great cause.
Mid way through training the Gloucester city half marathon was pulled due to problems with the City Council regarding road closures. After an attempt the change to route, they have informed all runners that the paperwork would not be ready in time for the big day.
Despite this, I am still going to be running my own half marathon with the friend who signed me up in the first place. This will now be achieved by my girlfriend dropping us off 13.1 miles from a pub and we will be using said pub as a finishing line - with the promise of a cold alcoholic beverage as a medal! Not the worst way to end a run. Stay tuned where I will let you know my finish time.
We have a company of June babies! Happy Birthday to:
