An interview with David Stone, founder and CEO of MRL on the joys of a four-day working week

Friday Fatigue? Not for MRL. They’re championing the four-day working week – and for them, it works

An edited version of this interview will appear in Platinum Business Magazine and on the Brighton Chamber of Commerce website. It was commissioned for the Chamber in February 2020

Anticipating the Chamber’s next Big Debate ‘Would a 4-day week work for Brighton?’, Chamber Vice-President and Chimera Communications MD Jill Woolf interviewed the charismatic and charming David Stone, founder and CEO of global high-tech recruitment consultancy MRL at their UK offices in Hove.

David and his business partner started MRL in 1997 and last year challenged their staff to make a four-day working week trial work for both the business and them. It did work and is now the norm for MRL, who pay the same five-day a week salary for a four-day working week to all their employees.

Here we learn how the anticipated benefits are working out and what, if any, are the downfalls.

Jill:                  Your focus is the recruitment, retention and motivation of great people for your company. You made the bold decision to introduce a shorter working week with the expectation that your people can do in four days what they did previously in five. With increasingly advanced tech and remote working, how do you stop your people from working 24/7 if they want to?

David:             I don’t stop anyone from working if they want to, but I don’t enforce an over-working culture. When we brought in the four-day week, we didn’t stretch the hours (8.30am to 6pm). A lot of people suggested we make the hours 8am to 8pm or 8am to 7pm, but I didn’t want to do that. To me, it’s counter-intuitive to the premise of a four-day week.

Recruitment is the type of business where you’re pretty much ‘always on’. It’s sales and it’s intense so we do check our phones in the evenings, especially as we’re a global business dealing with different time zones. If we need to return a call or do an email because it’s the only time we can, then we do it – it comes naturally to those in recruitment. I wouldn’t forcibly stop someone from doing that but equally I don’t ask them to do it, and I don’t encourage them to do it either.

I think many people do this in different walks of life anyway but the big difference here is that there is zero expectation they’ll come into the office on a Friday, although they’re being fully paid for it. I encourage them to take down-time.

Jill:                  Do they come in on a Friday though?

David: The odd person, now and then, may do. I am probably the worst culprit for coming in, if only for a few hours! I’m trying to do better this year though. I’ve added in a few hours at the leisure centre then maybe lunch with my wife and a trip to the mall if I need something.

Jill:                   Microsoft’s Japan offices four-day working week trial saw a 40% increase in productivity. Have you had to change the way in which you work, and how are your stats proving it’s working for you?

David:             We did our four-day week long before Microsoft Japan did theirs!

Our trial was from May to November last year (2019) and we rigorously checked all the stats. We’re hitting our five-day sales targets in four days, which in theory translates to a 20% productivity rise. ‘Sickies’ have gone down by half and staff retention is at 96%. If people are going to leave, they’re going to go to somewhere with a five-day week so they’d have to be pretty miserable to leave! But sales-wise, we’re hitting 100% of all our five-day targets.

Jill:                  How have your staff members taken to the change?

David:             We launched the idea at a swanky hotel in Barcelona, along with all our overseas people. 

It was hugely exciting and then reality kicked in when we got back to our desks. Generally, the older team members adapted quickly while some of the younger ones took a little more time as they had to up the tempo, so they needed a bit more support.

I found a stat which said that the average worker works for something like 3 hours 12 minutes per day, which is frightening. If you extrapolate that to a five-day working week, that’s around 16 hours of work. I’m giving my people four days in which to do those 16 hours. They’ve still got four hours left to talk about Love Island or last night’s football (or they could do four more hours of work!).

What I did was pass the trial over to the team, and said “OK, it’s up to you. You can make it work, in which case we’ll keep it, or if not we’ll go back to five days” and of course no-one wanted it taken away. People had to up the tempo of the work they were doing. We saw a decrease in the “chat” and an increase in productivity.

Jill:      In your experience of other businesses, including your clients, do business leaders really know when their staff are most productive?

David:             No, I think most managers are woeful at knowing what their people do and how they do it. They haven’t got a clue as to their productivity levels. I know in some fields it’s very difficult to measure absolute productivity but people have become so conditioned to working 9-5 or 9-6 Monday to Friday that it’s almost a lemming mentality. You do it because your parents did and their parents before them. 

Let’s face it, in many places these days, no-one really does much work on a Friday afternoon, possibly because you’ve done all your work but you have to stay till 5pm even though there’s nothing to do.

Jill:                  And you’ve got to be seen to be doing it.

David:             Exactly. It’s nonsense, and I think companies and managers need to get much better at measuring what each job is, what it entails, how you do it, how much time is involved in doing it, and so on. It’s what we used to call Time & Motion.

Jill:                   Have you quantified cost savings in electricity or heating or the environmental impact of less commuting/fuel consumption?

David:             No, other than to say they must be down 20%!

Jill:                   How would this work for smaller businesses and how could they compete with bigger ones?

David:             It depends what industry you’re in. Recruitment is perfectly positioned because what we do is so measured and simple – you’re either hitting the numbers and filling the jobs or you’re not. I’m not well placed to comment on other sectors – if you need your solicitor on a Friday, then you need them. Could they find a model that worked? I don’t know.

Jill:                   Maybe they could work a rota system. Do you need offices then?

David:             Yes. I’m not a massive fan of working from home. I think there are very few people who are self-disciplined and structured enough, and I know I’m certainly in that category.

We’re in a sales industry and sales people are gregarious, they need others to bounce off, to check things over with, talk through their problems and so on. Also, there’s training. Who’s going to train my young rookies if all the experienced people are sitting at home? You need that learning culture. It’s something I get asked about a lot, and I am mulling over some options at the moment because about 85-90% of our work is overseas and we’re doing so much in America.

David Stone

Jill:                   How could Brighton make a 4-day week work, especially hospitality, tourism, seasonal workers, tech, start-ups, SMEs etc? Is there anything about Brighton that would make it work better or not?

David:             For the recruitment companies here, once their owners or managers get their head round the concept, no problem. We’ve proven that.

For others and the public sector, what they need to get clear on is what are the actual productivity metrics and expectations of their staff. Then work out how people do their jobs and how long does it take to do a proper week’s work? It would have to be sector by sector in terms of how to measure that.

I’ve got this theory and I don’t know how to prove it. Maybe someone reading this can come up with a way. If you go for a four-day week, you’ve got immediate, tangible benefits – better mental health, wellness, happiness, sick time reduces, retention rate improves. Therefore, you’re not paying to hire new people or train them. If you went to a hospital and applied the four-day week to nurses, for example, they can’t do a five-day week in four, we know that. Nurses are massively overworked and stressed. The burnout rate is high and the mental health incident rate is high, as are the sickness rate and churn of people leaving the industry. If you said to the nurses – we’re going to pay you for five days but you only work four, immediately the hospital is presented with a 20% increase in their salary bill because someone’s got to come in and cover the fifth day in the wards. 

But how much of that 20% is offset by the decreased sick time, decreased mental health incidents, increased retention and decreased churn? I don’t know you’d get all your 20% back but I think it would be 10-15%. You’d have a happier workforce, they wouldn’t be so sick or stressed, and they’d stick around for longer – and that is worth money.

You could take that theory to the police force or Tesco or wherever there’s high stress and churn. People underestimate the cost of hiring and training people up to speed, sometimes it’s 30-40% of their salary.

Jill:                   Maybe one of the universities could look at this, or maybe one of the private hospitals would like to try.

David:             That would be fascinating for me. It would be a game changer for a sector. The Said Business Unit at Oxford has a whole policy team looking at the four-day week concept.

The schools in Colorado were broke and a year or two ago, several of them went down to a four-day week because they didn’t have the funding to keep the schools open five days a week. What happened was that the grades improved. By giving the kids a three-day weekend, they were happier and the teachers were less stressed.

Jill:                   That’s interesting, because you’d think the reverse would happen.

David:             Totally, but it’s the same theory. What wasn’t made so public was that there was an increase in juvenile delinquency but that’s because their parents work a five-day week so the kids were left unattended and got up to mischief!

Jill:                  Are there any downfalls of the four-day working week that you’ve found?

David:             None. Some of the stories of what people are doing on their extra days off are lovely, like one guy who was able to take his new born baby swimming for the first time, or we have two people in our German office who are doing PhDs.

Of course, it would be a different proposition if we were only paying for four days. Most people can’t afford to take a 20% hit on their budgets and still have the same standard of living. Our people would have left and gone somewhere else.

Some people have asked if they get more stressed because they’re doing more in a shorter time, but we haven’t seen it. We did a staff survey after the trial and 89% said they felt their mental health had improved.

Jill:                  How did your Radio 4 interview go for ‘The Bottom Line’*?

David:             You have been doing your research! I was quite chuffed and pleased to be asked. Apparently they have a listener base of 11m which sounds high. Broadcasting House is impressive and Evan Davis was charming. He wanted to talk about a five-day week with shorter daily hours, or an early retirement age so you do your five days then retire at 55.

Overall there was nothing to argue about really because we’re proving that it works and we know it’s not going to work for everyone.

Jill:                   Should there be more choice?

David:             Technology was meant to set us free to consider our choices. But what happened was the opposite. We were told by now we’d be working two or three days a week and enjoying our leisure time.

But technology means we’re working harder and longer than we ever used to. Before, when we finished our working day and went home, there was no way to contact us apart from our home phone. Certainly, there was no way of contacting us when we were on holiday. Now we’re on our phones every evening and all weekend, and that’s probably where the mental health issues are coming in as well as FOMO, fear of missing out. It’s not healthy but I don’t know how we change that.

I don’t believe Government should dictate that everyone works a four-day week because some companies would go bust. If you get a few entrepreneurial companies setting the pace with a four-day week and reaping the benefits, then there’ll be a huge “me too” rush.

We weren’t the first recruitment company to do it but since we did, there have been at least another dozen in the UK, Ireland and Holland which have. What will happen is that people working a five-day week will go to an employer working four and those companies will lose their best employees. Eventually the whole sector will follow.

But I’m not trying to change the world, I’m just trying to give my company an advantage and my people a decent working environment.

Jill:                  What are your final words of wisdom for business leaders who are considering, or are nervous about, changing to a four-day week?    

David:             Don’t ever rule anything out. Consider all options. Look at your business with fresh eyes. Don’t be stuck with preconceptions. Look at what you’re trying to achieve with a four-day working week and ask if it could be achieved in another way first. And rather than pocketing the effects of increased productivity, share the love with your employees because they’ll stick around longer, be more loyal and work harder for you. You’ll get your profits in the long run if money is your motivator, maybe not straight away, but you will get them.

Finally, my top tip is consider a four-and-a-half-day week trial first and dangle the carrot. If I had to do it over, that’s what I’d do. I’d say to staff – have Friday afternoons off on me, the weekend starts at 1pm each Friday. But I’m going to want 105% of target. You give me that for the next 12 months, then we’ll go four days, and that would also give them the time to make the change and adapt.

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You can see more about MRL on https://www.mrlcg.com/ and hear David Stone’s interview on BBC Radio 4’s The Bottom Line on https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000fpc7

MRL also gives staff a one-month sabbatical for every five years worked and pays the air fare for trips to eg Australia, the USA and South Africa.

Here's a conundrum ...

You're manning reception (or these days I suppose I should say 'personning' but that just sounds silly) or working in a store and the phone goes. At the same time a customer walks up to you to ask a question. Which do you attend to first? 

Or you're in a deep and meaningful conversation with your boss and the phone rings / a customer walks in. What do you do?

As I've grown older and less tolerant of poor customer service, every experience like this which isn't handled well presents an opportunity for the individual and thus the company / business / organisation to do better. There should be proper training and clear guidelines as to what is expected of everyone working for a company, and in many there are - and they get it right. Are you sure that's your business?

How important is the customer? How do you know if that's a new one on the phone waiting to give you a huge order? How do you know if the person walking in is a mystery shopper?

How often have you fumed while you travel the world virtually through call centre systems when the business you're calling about is located just down the road?

Each time I stand in line waiting for service when the person behind the counter is so busy chatting to his / her colleague about what they did the night before, or I'm fighting with a health centre receptionist to get an appointment (to which my response is usually "Three weeks? I'll either be dead or better by then"), or my local leisure centre when they can't find my booking when I made it in person the week before, I want to go straight to the person at the top and tell them there's a training need. And sometimes I do.

Why am I, as a Public Relations and Communications specialist, talking about Customer Service? Because it can make or break your business. Get it wrong and it doesn't matter how good your products or services are because your customers will go elsewhere. It'll have a direct affect on your reputation, sales and ultimately your profits. And that's the connection. That's why it's so important.

To rectify the need, my Customer Service 101 training workshop looks at the topic from a PR and Comms perspective and is going to be held in Brighton on 20th February. 

Come along for a refresher; if you're starting a business come along to ensure great Customer Service from Day One; or send your team for a couple of hours out and some fun, informal and interactive training. 

Practical tips you can put into practice straight away will put a smile on your Customer Service face. And as they say in certain establishments "Have a nice day now!"

You can book tickets at an insanely competitive price here.

Sleep Like a Baby, Live Like a Superhero

Chimera Communications' MC and Brighton Chamber Vice-President Jill Woolf recently caught up with Brighton Summit workshop leader Alison Prangnell of Anderida Coaching. Alison is a Master NLP Coach and Clinical Hypnotherapist, with a passion for health and mindset in life and business. Her workshop is called Sleep Like a Baby, Live Like a Superhero.

Alison Prangnell

Here we learn more about Alison and why she wanted to be part of the Summit.

Jill: When, how and why did you become a Stress Management Consultant and Performance Coach

Alison: I started my own business two years ago after coaching part-time around my old day job. I was inspired to work in stress management because of my own journey.

Like many people I worked in environments with a lot of stress, either because of culture and management style, volume of work, or the way I handled it. I got burnout and became pretty ill.

When I had burnout, it was before everyone started talking about it. I went to the GP and all I got was a shrug of the shoulders. It’s better now, I know, but I had to learn from the ground up how to make myself well again.

So, I combined this knowledge with my experience of management in fast-growing SMEs with coaching skills like NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) to help businesses and their people become more resilient and create a culture that doesn’t fuel stress, burnout and illness.

The result is happier, more motivated people and a more profitable business.

Jill: What type of people come to you for help and what are the main causes of their issues?

Alison: I work with senior execs through to anyone experiencing stress in their day-to-day lives.

People believe the major factor in their stress is work, which can’t be denied but what many people don’t have a clear sight of is how many other factors contribute to their stress experience. If you take control and do something positive, you can significantly reduce your stress symptoms by managing all the other factors and become more resilient, physically and mentally.

We can’t eliminate stress, it’s a programmed response to a situation. What we need to get better at is recognising and managing our response to those situations, which is easier than many people think. 

Jill: Do you advocate the old adage that we need eight hours’ sleep?

Alison: The sleep you have and when you need it will vary from person to person and their circadian rhythm. Science supports the idea that most people need between 6-8 hours’ sleep. As most people will have experienced, if you aren’t getting enough sleep your ability to think and make decisions, along with your emotions and energy, will all quickly get out of kilter.

People believe they are still performing but the less sleep you get, the more mistakes you make (as confirmed by a study by The Lancet). There will be other factors that affect your personal sleep requirement including circadian rhythm, metabolism, the level of physical or mental stress you are under, your overall health etc.

There are those who say, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead”, feel they are superhuman and don’t need much sleep. It’s a fallacy. Science shows they are shortening their lifespan by restricting their sleep and pushing themselves at maximum for the rest of the time.

Our systems simply aren’t built for it and we start to get ill. It is safer to go by the benchmark of 6-8 hours and adapt according to your lifestyle and physiological needs. It really is that simple.

Putting it even simpler, we teach our children they need sleep. If they don’t get it, let’s face it, they melt down and all hell breaks loose, then we’re desperate to make sure they get the right amount of sleep the next night! Yet as adults we suddenly believe we are now different. We aren’t. Our brains and bodies need to recharge.

Jill: If you’re someone who sleeps badly, can you ever ‘catch up’?

Alison: No, not really. There isn’t a sleep bank you can draw on. If you’re tired, you need to allow your body to sleep. The best advice is if you’ve had a week, say at a conference where you’re burning the candle at both ends, get back into your proper sleep routine with full sleep cycles as quickly as possible. That way your body can get you back on track quicker.

Jill: It’s easy to believe that lack of sleep is a phenomenon which has materialised over the last 20 or 30 years, but has it always been so and we just haven’t talked about it or is it more to do with the increasing use of technology, which was meant to make life easier for us?!

Alison: People have always found it hard to sleep at some time or another, we’re human after all. Particularly in times of stress our sleep can suffer, they can be intrinsically linked. Having said that, some people who are stressed sleep for England. I always did!

Technology is a big contributing factor, it has insinuated itself into our every waking minute and our bedrooms. It’s designed to be addictive, keeping your brains awake even when your sleep cycle needs your brain to start slowing down to get that sleep you crave. Playing on your mobile phone all evening won’t help you sleep better. Period.

But there are so many other factors and that’s why you can’t look at sleep in isolation, it is modern life overall. We have busier lives where we are on the go all the time, desperately trying to balance families and work, invading our personal lives through technology, and we feel like we have too little time for relaxation.

Factor in the explosion in the volume of sugar and caffeine (and alcohol) we have been consuming - all of which are sleep disruptors; even our exercise regimes. We run out of time and try and do a workout late at night which again disrupts our ability to sleep properly.  

If we want better sleep and less stress then making small incremental changes (which we can manage when things feel fraught and we don’t want yet another task on the to-do list) will start making big differences. All of this is manageable even though it might not seem like it at first glance.

Jill: In your opinion, does it follow that the higher up you are in an organisation, the less sleep you get – or need?

Alison: Well if you are an exec who wants to make the best decisions make sure you get some sleep!

But no, however high up in the organisation you are, you’re still a human that needs sleep. It shouldn’t be dependent on the organisation and your rank as to how much sleep you get but if work is giving you sleepless nights, it needs to be addressed.

This applies to everyone though, at every level in the organisation, front line or backstage. Everyone has pressures that apply to them individually. What is certain is that lack of sleep will affect your team’s productivity, engagement and effectiveness. The idea that you should just keep pushing yourself or your employees harder is self-defeating for your business performance, whether you are an exec or an employee.

Jill: Tell me about your workshop for the Summit. Great title, by the way.

Alison: The workshop at the event is a taster of the longer one I offer businesses and individuals. So many people don’t understand all the factors they could change, even just a tiny bit, to get better sleep and a better quality of life.

Improve the quality of your sleep (it’s not always about quantity) and your health, relationships and performance in work, sport or flying the world with your superhero cape can only improve.

Jill: What will attendees get out of the session?

Alison: They’ll understand sleep better and how important it is overall, not just relieving them from feeling frazzled. They’ll go away with quick wins – practical ideas to help them start improving their sleep cycles and energy after the session. Most of all, they’ll learn how they can get greater control over what’s happening rather than feeling at the mercy of the ticking clock by the bedside.

Jill: How do you sleep?

Alison: Very well! I love my sleep. I know I need eight hours’ sleep and I try and manage my days to ensure I get it. If I have an early morning, I go to bed earlier making sure I get full sleep cycles. If I get disrupted sleep, I know there’s something else I need to work on during the day.

Jill: How can we book on to your half or full-day sleep workshops and where do they take place? (I might well see you there soon 😊)

Alison: I offer in-house workshops for businesses and public sessions throughout the year people can book on individually. I advocate the full-day events as you can really start getting down to the details and put a personalised plan together as well as learn some self-hypnosis techniques.

Businesses can contact me directly regarding internal workshops on alison@anderidacoaching.co.uk and sessions are posted on www.anderidacoaching.co.uk New dates are being scheduled at the moment!

 *Brighton Summit is THE business conference for the Brighton area and takes place annually. This year it's on Friday 11th October. See www.brightonsummit.co.uk for more info.

5 ways to improve your customer service and your reputation

You’ve got your branding spot on. You even have a style guide. You’ve got all the employees you need. Your premises look great. Your website is sparkling. You’re proud to be eco-friendly and sustainable, not a plastic straw in sight. You have leads and appointments. You have a sales pipeline. You aren’t worried about cash flow. Yet. You have it all down pat.

What could possibly go wrong?

Have you seen bad press for companies that give poor customer service? How you treat your customers, even just one customer, can have a good or bad effect on your company.

Customer service is about every element of the purchase experience with your company, from the initial research to after-care support. If you have a small business, you’re more likely to be aware of how your customers are treated. If you are at the top of a large company, this isn’t possible. How do you know how your customers are being treated?

The main reason why a customer leaves or doesn’t buy from you again is because they feel you don’t care about them.

How can you show them you care? It’s simple. Provide excellent customer service and be authentic from the top down in your desire to give your customers an excellent experience from start to end, which then becomes the start again – there’s nothing better for the business heart and for the business pocket than repeat customers.

From the person on Reception who chooses whether to acknowledge the customer who has just walked in or carries on talking to their colleague (BAD), to the car dealership which sends you a personalised video every fortnight to let you know how your new car is being built thereby keeping you in the loop (GOOD), it’s a choice each business owner must make.

Show your customers you care

Do you have “We provide excellent customer service” somewhere on your website, in your mission, vision or values? Do you really mean it or is it something you thought you had to put on there?

There are thousands of negative customer service stories on the web but relatively very few positive ones. People tell many more people when they have a bad experience than when they have a good one, and word of mouth counts. I am the sort of person who takes to Twitter immediately I have dreadful customer service because it’s absolutely not necessary and the offending companies need to be outed.

Here are five ways in which you can offer excellent customer service for your customers:

1. Call back or respond as quickly as possible

Doesn’t it make your blood boil when someone promises to call you back and they don’t? In my experience, I always expect the worse then I can be pleasantly surprised when it does happen. I make bets. I’m not often wrong. And isn't it nearly always the mobile phone and utility companies?!

Rather than an empty promise to call back, if you can’t do so with the information needed, then call back anyway and say it’ll take longer. It’s amazing how much this will alleviate stress on behalf of the customer, and it’ll give you extra brownie points in the long run.

With the thousands of emails we all receive, find a way of prioritising the important ones and exercise good time management to get back to the others within a reasonable period, say within two working days. A footer added to your corporate signature explaining this customer service promise will make people aware. It’s good PR.

Ditch those hated automated phone systems. Last week I was holding on for over ten minutes while the message cut in every minute to tell me my call was important to the company. It clearly wasn’t important to the company because if it was, they would have a better way in which to answer their phones. And I don’t mean outsourcing to overseas call centres who can only deal with customer enquiries via scripts. It’s not the customer service assistants fault, it’s the fault of the company which isn’t equipping people well enough to be able to offer excellent customer service.

2. Know your customers inside and out

Great interactions begin with knowing your customers’ wants and needs; what makes them buy; what mood they’re in when they buy; what time of day they buy; and what is it that prompts them to buy from you.

If your business is small enough, get to know your customers, remember their names and previous conversations. If you have a larger business, use an effective CRM system so that when someone calls your company, the person answering the phone can see the last contact with the customer and effectively deal with the query or update them on the previous issue.

3. Be prepared to do something to rectify a problem

One of the best ways to damage your reputation is by not taking responsibility if you get something wrong. And even if you don’t think it was your fault, weigh up the cost of putting it right anyway to avoid a disgruntled customer.

Consider these scenarios:

You buy a relatively cheap bunch of flowers for home from a low-price supermarket. You’ve used the store a fair number of times and you’ve been happy with the quality of the goods. You’ve purchased similar flowers and they’ve always been fine. You’ve never had to complain before. You’re a good advocate of the brand. On this occasion, the flowers died more or less overnight. You couldn’t get back to the store because you were busy and it took several days before you visited. The customer service assistant was arrogant, rude and tried to make you feel small. You complained to the manager who was no better. Is the very small cost of refunding a cheap bunch of flowers worth the rather large cost of the many people you will tell about your experience?

On the other hand, mentioning this to a friend who works for a higher-end supermarket, she said their policy is to immediately refund or replace regardless. Now consider which store you’ll visit in future.

There is a direct correlation to the bottom-line profits of those who offer excellent customer service.

4. Aim for excellent and achieve it

Going above and beyond will not only result in repeat business and happy customers, it will have a positive effect on your reputation, arguably your most important asset. Make sure everyone in your business, whether it’s one employee or thousands, offers the same level of customer service. Regularly do mystery shopping to check. Make it a part of your business culture and get buy-in from everyone from the CEO to the delivery driver. Have consequences if someone lapses and find out why. Maybe there's something you can do to put it right. Always investigate and report back to the customer.

5. A customer is for life not just for Christmas

Think long-term and keep your customers happy, and they will be loyal. Customer retention is so important. It costs much more to locate and convert new leads than it does to retain and satisfy existing customers. It’s a no-brainer.

6. Buy five and get one free!

If your brand is known for excellent customer service always, then there is an argument that says you’ll be able to charge a little more for the privilege or if not that, then customers will buy more from you thereby increasing revenue. 

Either way, it makes sense. Can you afford to get it wrong?

Chimera Communications can help you identify what’s going right and what could go wrong in your organisation. We can work with you to get your internal and external communications right. And we can show you how to make your customer service excellent.

Contact us now for an initial chat on info@chimeracomms.co.uk or 01903 812275.

Popular client misconceptions

I’ve always worked on the premise that my colleagues and I work as extensions to our clients’ own teams, as if they have a PR and marketing department without all the on-costs and employment issues. In the main, this has worked extremely well because there are so many benefits for the client.

There are, of course, some exceptions to the rule. Well, there would be, wouldn’t there?! These take the form of some strange misconceptions that some people have of what working with consultants is all about. I’ll give you some examples of some of the questions or comments I receive …

Will you halve your fee and work for [peanuts]?

Er, no. Would you?

It still amazes me that people expect others to carry the burden of their bad planning, lack of forethought, or queasy management. If you’re setting up a serious business then you need a proper business plan to ensure you know where you’re going and you need a realistic budget to get you there, not least of which to let people know your business is there as well as encourage them to buy from you. You’ll need enough resources so you’re not working 24/7, and an exit strategy in case it all goes horribly wrong.

By the way, it’s perfectly ok to have a kitchen table business and know you want to keep going as a micro-business. If your income pays the bills and you have no desire to scale up, that’s absolutely fine. Whatever works for you.

But please don’t assume you can ask other small businesses (or even larger ones) to work for peanuts because you want the service, expertise, experience and professionalism but don’t want to or can’t pay for it. That’s just not fair, and actually it’s quite insulting. And yet some do. Well, you know what you get if you pay peanuts! Think honestly about how you’d feel if it was someone expecting you to do the same.

I’m paying you but I won’t listen to you

Then you’re wasting your money. When we ask our clients for something, there’s a good reason. When we suggest a different way of doing something, explain to us why it won’t work rather than dismiss it out of hand. We’ll likely have tried it successfully somewhere else or know a business where it’s worked well, hence the suggestion.

If you think you know better than us then again, you’re wasting your money. You’ve chosen to employ consultants, why not focus on running your business and let us take on the job for which you asked. After all, you’re the expert in your business, not us. Let us work with you to help you make more money, be more successful, get better known, or whatever your objective is.

Social media is free so why am I paying for it?

You’re paying for our expertise and experience in PR-led messaging and communications. There’s not only the time spent creating messages and supporting graphics, inputting and scheduling, we build up your follower/fan base, create and join in conversations on your behalf, respond to inbound messages, and manage your reputation this way too. We work to your business plan objectives, goals and targets. We don’t spend oodles of time creating massive reports at the end of the month when you can check your insights for free yourself, but we are continually monitoring what’s happening online for you.

I don’t have time to send you stuff, can’t you do it yourself?

Well no, we’re not mind-readers. You know what’s going on in your business, in your teams, with your clients/customers, and in your industry. We rely on your commitment to the partnership to give us ample input so we can, in return, help you.

On the other hand

These are just a sample of the comments I hear from potential clients. It’s not all like that, of course. We have had and currently have some wonderfully switched-on ones. 

They’re the clients who say:

• What do you need from me?
• I’ve created a really tight brief so you know exactly what we need
• We couldn’t have done it without you
• Our sales are up 40% on this time last year – thank you!
• Wherever we go, people recognise our company name and brand
• We’ve recommended you to our own clients

That’s what we like to hear!

If you’d like to be one of the select band that make up the Chimera Communications client base, get in touch with me now - jill@chimeracomms.co.uk 

Blink and 15 years go by, just like that!

It all started at the Hotel Seattle, Brighton, in February 2003. I was having dinner with a very good friend, colleague, mentor, future client and future team member. My small but perfectly formed PR and marketing consultancy was about to arrive on Planet Earth.

I had just taken voluntary redundancy from a wonderful job I had been in for 10 years. I was a head of department running PR, Communications and Corporate Services across nine group companies in the South-East. I had a great team behind me and unquestioning support from my immediate director.

It’s possible I would have been there still today, had it not been for rafts of mergers and acquisitions, the last of which resulted in horrendous internal politics, self-preservation tricks and ego-related shenanigans. This was the sort of situation that showed people up in their worst light. It became the sort of place in which I didn’t fit, so I was off.

What next?

So many people said to me, upon hearing of my impending departure: “If you’re going to set up a PR company, I’ve got some work for you.” Goodness no, I retorted, that’s really not what I want to do! No, no, never. My plan was to take a few months out and consider what to do next, calmly and rationally.

Back to the Hotel Seattle on that fateful night. “If you’re going to set up a PR company, I’ve got some work for you.” Now it was my friend’s turn. “Go on,” she countered, “what’s the worst that can happen?” I pondered for a moment and responded, “If it all goes wrong, I’ll have to go and get another job… oh, alright then. I’ll call it Chimera Communications.”

And that was it. The next day I designed the logo, set up a bank account, got an accountant and bought a new laptop.

And now …

Fast forward 15 years and, of course, it was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. 

That’s not to say there haven’t been times when stacking shelves in Tesco seemed a desirable alternative. But overall, I really can’t believe it’s been 15 years. And several hundred clients later.

Here are some observations, as I sit back with my coffee vat and contemplate what’s turned out to be the very quirky world of Chimera Communications:

• Few people understand what PR is (public relations, that is, not proportional representation … which no-one understands anyway)
• When they do get it, they think they can do it themselves (sometimes you can, sometimes you really do need to be concentrating on the business you set up and leave the professionals to do it properly)
• Even fewer people realise how important it is to know your customer inside out and what makes them buy into your brand, products or services
• Only about 5% of SMEs have a business plan when they come to us (that’s an estimate, by the way, based on my experience; we’re not talking Ipsos MORI here)
• PR is not necessarily a quick win. You must be patient and allow time for the professionals to do it right (no, I’m not going to tell you how, you’ll have to employ us for that!)
• Some clients ambush themselves by not giving us what we need. This has been one of the most surprising client attributes. By not giving us what we need, to deadline and in the right format, we’re unable to do our job
• Another surprising client attribute is that some think we should work for nothing, which I always think is quite weird. Would they? I, for one, have spent decades honing my skills, experience and professionalism, and that comes at a price as a business consultant, just like a lawyer or accountant
• Social media has revolutionised communications. It’s fascinating to watch what happens next in the world of PR and comms. Will robots take over our jobs? Wouldn’t it be fun to see how they tackle organising an event on the beach, or train people to go live on TV or radio?!
• The explosion in real-time news availability has been, overall, fantastic. How interesting is it to watch news happening in front of your eyes?
• Crisis PR management, though, has changed immensely. Not the theory, just the speed at which responses are expected. Not a bad thing, but organisation and prior preparation for such an event is key

• Everyone’s expectations have changed dramatically too. Remember when we used to send letters by post and – yes - actually waited days for a reply?! 
• Now most of us look online for reviews before we consider buying a product or service
• Whole new industries have arrived to tell us how to do things: digital everything; Data Protection; GDPR and so on
• Technology has certainly made life much easier in so many respects, but the burden of legislation and political correctness in communications has escalated, more so for some sectors, so the small print is not so small any more
• Where would we be without YouTube videos to show us how to do things properly (invaluable in many cases)?; or squintillions of apps (how did we ever live without them?), so much so that we don’t need to go outside our homes or offices unless we really want to (sunshine and fresh air, anyone?)
• Keeping up with the pace of change is either exhausting or exhilarating, depending on your frame of mind. I think a combination of the two, as I love learning new things daily
• And I have learned so much over the years. I’ve improved. I’m confident in my views and advice. I can share successful techniques across my client base. I mentor others in business. I give back

Some more observations

• It’s been interesting to see the revival of vinyl - and that the specialist record shop on the corner opposite Brighton Station is still trading, despite everything!
• People’s love of reading books is still alive and kicking. It’s been dismal seeing libraries disappear
• It seems social media is losing some of its lustre. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more about this in the weeks, months and years ahead. Life is cyclical (as any woman who realises something she wears is so old, it’s now back in fashion will tell you). Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
• As someone who started her career on newspapers in London, I’ve been saddened by the decline in the quality of journalism over the years. Governed by the decrease in advertisers and the subsequent decrease in journalists, content has been lost and quality content at that. Coupled with the lack of experience of cub reporters and sometimes the lack of experienced chief/senior reporters and editors to teach them on the job, as well as sub-editors who don’t seem to know how to correct bad grammar or spot bad spelling - plus the proliferation of non-stories and fake news - is it any wonder people these days have little faith in what they read or see on screen?

Overall, though 

Don’t let the above make you think it hasn’t been fun. I’ve experienced so much I never thought I would, done so much, seen so much, been so many places, met so many people, laughed so much.

It’s been a real ride, and I still have the ticket to go around again.

One of the highlights was being invited to become a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations for services to PR. A real accolade.

Most of my clients have been a delight and a pleasure to work with. We’ve had some great results and some lovely testimonials. We’ve had some talented, skilled, creative professionals on the team over the years, who have been real assets to the company. And I have a clever hairdresser who hides all the grey hairs which have arrived over the years under this nutty blonde halo (of hair, not the celestial kind).

So, to start celebrating 15 years of Chimera Communications with you, we’re offering 15% off PR and marketing services, as well as mentoring, for 15 days from 15 February 2018.

There are some Ts & Cs, so do contact me for details.

Thank you to everyone involved in or with Chimera Communications over the years, and here’s to the future.