Social media business insights offered at seminar

Two gelato artisans from a Sydney gelato company will be sharing their social media business insights at the City of Sydney’s City Thought Leaders seminar.

Mark Megahey and Sean O’Brien from Ciccone & Sons will be joined by the director of lifestyle design boutique Becker Minty, Jason Minty, and small business expert Jacqui Attard from Realise Business, to discuss the importance of customer service to drive business growth.

Creating an instore customer experience proved successful for Ciccone & Sons, whose small Redfern shop has a distinctly laid-back appeal.

“Social media allows our customers to get an insight into what they will experience instore. We’ve used it to reiterate our branding by ensuring it is consistent with the instore experience, such as when we have a new flavour or doing something exciting for our customers,” said O’Brien.

“We like the store to feel comfortable — like an extension of home. We play music we like and we decorated the shop with paintings and tapestry that we would hang on our walls at home.”

Becker Minty’s founders created a unique lifestyle boutique in Potts Point a decade ago. Their desire to create a buying experience has led to positive results for the store.

“We sell one-off, high-end products that you won’t find everywhere else, and part of that package is to provide an experience that you only get instore,” Minty said.

“Our staff spend a lot of time creating profiles on our customers so that we can offer a bespoke service, and much of our clientele are now repeat customers.”

Lord Mayor Clover Moore said events like the free Thought Leaders series offer Sydney start-ups a unique opportunity to learn from successful business owners and operators.

“Sydney is home to a diverse range of businesses and the City is committed to nurturing economic growth so more businesses can open and flourish and continue to create more job opportunities in the area,” said Moore.

“One of the ways we can do this is to give small businesses the tools they need to try new ideas and boost their capacity to attract new customers.”

According to Attard, offering good customer service is one of the easiest ways small businesses can compete with bigger operators — but it is also one of the biggest challenges for new enterprises.

“Successful business deliver a high-level customer service and today customer expectations are high,” Attard said.

“Business owners need to ensure their team consistently delivers their ideal level of service. You need to have clear guidelines on how clients are handled at every step of the purchase journey.

“Training, induction, having clear processes in place and understanding your brand values are all vital for delivering the level of customer service people now expect from a business.”

The free City Thought Leaders seminars, featuring Sydney’s experts in their fields, will be held at Customs House from February to November on the last Wednesday of the month. 

The Elevated state: customer experience is everything seminar will be held on Wednesday, 29 March.

Image courtesy of City of Sydney

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