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Celebrating our marketing success

Author: Jennifer Thompson, Marketing Project ManagerMay 18, 2012

On May 17, I had the honour of attending the Saskatoon Awards for Business Excellence (SABEX) ceremony. Flaman was named a finalist in the Marketing award category.

This was a very exciting nomination for us. The SABEX awards honour businesses in Saskatoon and area in a variety of categories, such as Marketing, Customer Service, New Business and Business of the Year. Winners are selected from the finalists by a group of their peers. It meant a lot to us that we were recognized for our efforts by business leaders in our community.
 
This was the first time Flaman was named a finalist for a SABEX award.The ceremony was held at Prairieland Park, which had been decorated in a glamorous 1950s theme. After a delicious supper, the awards began, and I have to say I sat on the edge of my seat until our category was announced. We were up against three other great local businesses, so I was pretty nervous. When they announced the winner of the Marketing award was Flaman Group of Companies, I couldn’t have been happier! Our tables clapped and cheered as Steve Whittington, our VP of Marketing, accepted our award.
 
This award means so much to us. As a member of the marketing team, I know firsthand how much work goes into our marketing programs. We handle marketing for multiple stores, in many diverse divisions like fitness, trailers, grain cleaning and ag. Along with traditional advertising and marketing, I feel that Flaman is leading the way with things like our websites and online community building.  
 
The goal of our marketing department is to give our customers what they want and create content that is engaging and interesting. To me this is exemplified in our “Great Stuck in the Muck” photo contest. This contest was created as a way for farmers to share photos and stories about getting stuck, which is a universal problem for anyone working outside. This contest quickly grew to be much more than just a photo site. It’s now known as “Facebook for Farmers” across Western Canada. This site was a way we could give back to our customers and I think it worked. The website regularly gets thousands of visitors each month and many more when voting is happening.
 
I am so proud of our team! Along with those from our Saskatoon office, we have a strong team of marketers and web designers from all our locations. It truly was an honour to be named a finalist and of course we are so thrilled to be recognized as a leader in the business community. Thank you to the Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce and all those in the company that contribute to our success.
 
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged with marketing awards business Saskatoon Sabex

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Customer Service in 2 Minutes or Less

Author: Lindsay Sanderson, Customer Relations ManagerApr 13, 2012
Hi! I wanted to take a minute (or 2) and introduce myself and tell you a little bit about what is happening in the world of customer service at Flaman. My name is Lindsay Sanderson. My official title is Customer Relations Manager but you can just call me Lindsay or the girl who calls you and talks really fast. My job was added not too long ago. Mostly I call customers (like you) to see how your experience here was. While I have been calling people I have learned that customer service can happen in 2 minutes or less (sometimes more but usually less).
Just about every day I go into my computer and I pull out a list of customers who have visited one of our locations and call as many as I can. Most of the time these calls are very short, under 2 minutes, although some are a bit longer. Usually the longer conversations come from when we have fallen down and screwed up. These conversation are not always fun but they are interesting and challenging. And I love a good challenge. Hearing about our weaknesses and failures is not the bright point of my day, but we have learned some very important lessons (those are for future blog posts).
More often than not I do get to hear really great stories about our people and our customers. When this happens I love having a great excuse to get out of my office, head down to the sales floor, shop or parts counter and say – “Hey I just heard the greatest story about you!” That is a pretty great part of my job.
These phone calls are customer service to me. They are about trying to learn what is happening from our customers' perspective. If we haven’t talked yet I look forward to talking with you! When I call you, I don’t have a formal survey that I am trying to fill out. I want to hear what you have to say, what you are thinking and what you would like to see. Like I said before, I talk really fast so 2 minutes is usually all it takes but if you want to talk slow or long I am good with that too!
If you have something that you really want to talk about (but I will warn you I am not very well versed on the finer points of hockey and football) please give me a call anytime at 1-888-435-2626.
Lindsay
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged with customer service flaman phone call survey story

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